Solyndra Executives Provide No Answers

By Adrianna McGinley

Top Solyndra Inc. executives invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and declined to answer any questions presented to them at a House Committee hearing Friday.

Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and CFO Bill Stover were scheduled to testify September 14 at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing investigating the over $500 million loan guarantee the company was awarded in 2009, but requested to postpone their appearance one week. According to the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the duo requested postponement because they were in active negotiations to sell the bankrupt company, in an attempt to lessen the consequences taxpayers would face.

The committee accepted the request with the condition that the two would answer questions at Friday’s hearing. Stearns said he received written assurance that Harrison would in fact answer questions, only to receive later notice that the two would voluntarily appear, but would plead the Fifth.

The Solyndra investigation has become a source of heated partisan debate, but one point on which there was agreement was the disappointment of not receiving answers from the executives.

“It is a very sad commentary that we met resistance every step of the way as this subcommittee has tried to seek answers to basic questions overseeing the approval process of this project,” said Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.). “We finally had to resort to a subpoena and now the outright resistance of getting answers that both of you, our two witnesses, assured us only last week that you would provide. Let me just warn you and the other folks involved in this taxpayer rip off, we’re not done.”

Members of the committee presented dozens of questions to the witnesses, all of which were answered, “On the advice of my council, I invoke the privilege afforded to me by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and I respectfully decline to answer any questions.”

After receiving no satisfactory answers, the committee dismissed the witnesses but made it clear that the investigation would continue.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) recommended that the next step in the investigation be to question private venture capitalists who invested over a billion dollars in Solyndra, including Argonaut Private Equity and Madrone Capital Partners.