Another Obozo "success" story
As everyone should know by now, the Obozo administration gave tens of billions of dollars worth of "loan guarantees" or outright grants to scores of so-called "green" companies--companies supposedly developing products to produce solar energy or reduce energy use. Example: Solyndra.
Conservatives warned that this was a terrible use of taxpayer money for many reasons. For one, the government is notoriously bad at identifying promising technologies and investments. Second, the potential for corruption in awarding the funds is off the charts: Democrat bureaucrats and cabinet officials would probably end up giving money to companies that were politically connected and/or Dem donors.
Finally, whenever a huge pot of money is proferred by gummint, it attracts a huge number of scammers intent on grabbing some of it. And of course the Democrats have shown that they'll fire whistleblowers and Inspectors General who disclose politically-driven scams targeting taxpayer funds. So short answer is that the Department of Energy wouldn't admit finding a scam if it was politically-driven.
One of the companies that received a huge loan guarantee was "First Solar," which builds solar panels. Its CEO was one Michael Ahearn. In 2010 First Solar got $16.3 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration. Not significant.
But the next year the company got federal loan guarantees for another $455 million. This is almost half a billion bucks.
As it happens, First Solar sells their solar panels to a Canadian company. It cited the revenues as a track record of sales of its product.
Turns out that First Solar owns the Canadian company that bought its panels.
But wait, it gets worse. Shortly after getting the 2011 federal loan guarantee--again, almost half a Billion of your dollars--CEO Michael Ahearn sold over 700,000 shares of First Solar stock, for approximately $68 million.
In case it's not obvious, CEO's who believe their company's stock will increase in price tend to hold shares, while those who think their stock will drop in price tend to sell.
Ahearn's strategy turned out to be uncannily accurate, as the company's stock has plummeted from around $300 a share to about $15 a share.
Oh, and in case you were curious: the vast majority of jobs created by First Solar were overseas.
h/t Steve Bowden Journal
Conservatives warned that this was a terrible use of taxpayer money for many reasons. For one, the government is notoriously bad at identifying promising technologies and investments. Second, the potential for corruption in awarding the funds is off the charts: Democrat bureaucrats and cabinet officials would probably end up giving money to companies that were politically connected and/or Dem donors.
Finally, whenever a huge pot of money is proferred by gummint, it attracts a huge number of scammers intent on grabbing some of it. And of course the Democrats have shown that they'll fire whistleblowers and Inspectors General who disclose politically-driven scams targeting taxpayer funds. So short answer is that the Department of Energy wouldn't admit finding a scam if it was politically-driven.
One of the companies that received a huge loan guarantee was "First Solar," which builds solar panels. Its CEO was one Michael Ahearn. In 2010 First Solar got $16.3 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration. Not significant.
But the next year the company got federal loan guarantees for another $455 million. This is almost half a billion bucks.
As it happens, First Solar sells their solar panels to a Canadian company. It cited the revenues as a track record of sales of its product.
Turns out that First Solar owns the Canadian company that bought its panels.
But wait, it gets worse. Shortly after getting the 2011 federal loan guarantee--again, almost half a Billion of your dollars--CEO Michael Ahearn sold over 700,000 shares of First Solar stock, for approximately $68 million.
In case it's not obvious, CEO's who believe their company's stock will increase in price tend to hold shares, while those who think their stock will drop in price tend to sell.
Ahearn's strategy turned out to be uncannily accurate, as the company's stock has plummeted from around $300 a share to about $15 a share.
Oh, and in case you were curious: the vast majority of jobs created by First Solar were overseas.
h/t Steve Bowden Journal
posted by SF at
9:34 AM
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