Stearns' Questions Solyndra Executives - Witnesses Take Fifth Amendment Rights Against Self Incrimination

Press Release

"Only two months ago, Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison met with me in the Committee offices at his request," said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. "He looked me in the eye and assured me that everything was just fine, and the company was on-track to be cash-flow positive. Mr. Harrison told me, and other Members of this Committee, that Solyndra was continuing to make excellent progress; that it was meeting all its cost and performance milestones; and that revenues were projected to nearly double in 2011."

Solyndra President and CEO, Brian Harrison, and Solyndra CFO, W.G. Stover, were the two witnesses for today's hearing. Stearns asked the first question, "Mr. Harrison, Mr. Stover, was every document and piece of information that you submitted to the Department of Energy, the White House Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Congress, and your investors accurate and complete, to the best of your knowledge?" The witnesses refused to answer this and all other questions claiming their Fifth Amendment rights.

Concluded Stearns, "We will get to the bottom of what the Administration understood about Solyndra's financial position, and why they continued to believe Solyndra was a good bet for $535 million in taxpayer money, even though DOE and OMB staff raised repeated concerns during their reviews about the very same financial problems that resulted in Solyndra's bankruptcy two years later. We will also press forward in trying to understand the political and time pressures that may have pushed this loan out the door before it was ready for prime time. And despite Mr. Harrison's and Mr. Stover's inability to answer questions today, we will determine whether Solyndra played any part in the government's failure to accurately assess the risks this deal presented to the government."

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