Taxpayers should be pissed. First Obama-backed Solyndra filed for bankruptcy after blowing their $535 million loan. Then Solyndra was caught destroying millions of inventory. Now we learn employees received pay raises and bonuses to boot.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Several of the nearly two dozen employees at bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC who were approved for bonuses Wednesday had months earlier received pay raises as high as 70 percent, a fact the company never disclosed in its request for bonus cash.
The company’s bankruptcy attorneys sought permission for the bonuses in a court hearing, arguing that the extra cash is needed to keep key employees from fleeing only to be replaced by more expensive outside consultants.
With little chance of stable employment and officials moving to liquidate assets, the workers needed to wind down the company have little incentive to stay, the Solyndra attorneys argued.
But an attorney for fired Solyndra workers railed against the plan, saying several of the proposed bonus recipients had received significant salary increases even after the company went bankrupt.
The disclosure drew sharp criticism from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath, who called it “shocking” that the company had not disclosed the pay raises in its bonus request.
Solyndra attorney Bruce Grohsgal defended not including that information in the bonus request, saying the raises were given as part of the company’s ordinary course of business since the employees had taken on more responsibilities.
“There was no thought we were hiding something,” he said.
He also said the employee who received a 70 percent raise was earning less than $70,000 in base salary but had taken on many new responsibilities.
