When Solyndra, the $535 million boondoggle that the Obama Administration funded and championed, went bankrupt, the company stated that 1100 workers lost their jobs. That was a lie; the Labor Department now has revealed that 1861 workers were let go. That’s 70% higher than Solyndra claimed.
In addition, the Labor Department reports that Solyndra increased production in 2011 even though it didn’t come close to selling off its inventory of panels. The company had enough panels to power about 23,000 homes but still pressed ahead with their production. It’s unlikely that they would have proceeded in this manner if they had not been funded by the government.
Solyndra was corrupt in other ways; senior executives collected multiple bonuses, some as high as $60,000, even though they were heading toward bankruptcy. More than a dozen senior executives received huge quarterly bonuses on April 15 and again on July 8 in 2011. Examples included:
- Karen Alter, Solyndra’s vice president of marketing, base salary of $275,000; awarded a $55,000 bonus in April and again in July.
- Ben Bierman, Solyndra’s executive vice president of operations and engineering, base salary of $300,000; awarded $60,000 in April and again in July.
- Will Stover, the company’s chief financial officer, awarded a $60,000 bonus in April and again in July.
- Chris Gronet, the company’s founder and original CEO, had a base salary of $400,000, but got a severance package totaling $456,000 when he was replaced by Brian Harrison, who was named CEO in July 2010. The only reason Gronet didn’t collect the severance pay was that the company went bankrupt.
When you look at Obama’s pet Solyndra, it becomes abundantly clear what Barack Obama means by green jobs. And the workers can go eat cake.