via Curmudgeonly and Skeptical
Thanks to some extensive research by the Washington Post, the magnitude of the scandal is now better defined. Here’s what the WaPo found:
- $3.9 billion in federal grants and financing flowed to 21 companies backed by firms with connections to five Obama Administration staffers and advisers.
- Sanjay Wagle, a venture capitalist and Barack Obama fundraiser in 2008, went to work at the DOE in 2009, and guided $2.4 billion to companies in which his former firm, Vantage Point Venture, had invested.
- David Danielson, formerly of General Catalyst, joined a DOE mission to fund breakthrough technologies and directed $105 million to three General Catalyst portfolio firms.
- David Sandalow was a highly compensated consultant in 2008 for Good Energies, a venture capital firm, before becoming an Assistant Secretary at DOE in 2009. SolarReserve, a Good Energies investment, received a $737 million DOE loan.
- Steven Spinner, got a job as an “adviser” at DOE after having been a campaign fundraising bundler for Obama. Spinner’s wife worked for the global law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati that specializes in clean technology companies. WSG&R clients garnered $2.75 billion in DOE loans, including the now infamous $535 million for Solyndra.
- Steve Westly – an Obama campaign fundraising bundler in 2008 and 2012 – was the founder of the venture capital firm, the Westly Group, and an adviser to DOE Secretary Steven Chu. Westly Group portfolio companies received $600 million in funding through the green-loan program.
- David Prend is Managing General Partner at the Boston based venture capital firm, Rockport Capital Partners. Prend also chaired a solar technologies advisory panel for the DOE, and had close ties with Energy Czar, Carol Browner. The DOE pumped $550 million into various Rockport Partners supported firms, not including Solyndra in which Rockport Partners was a 7.5% stakeholder. The DOE also funded electric-car battery company, Ener1 – a partner with Rockport portfolio car company Think - with a $118 million loan. [Full article]
