Research Briefing

From The Wall Street Journal

By Jacqueline Palank
February 2, 2012

Solyndra LLC’s former workers are mad as you-know-what and say they’re not going to take it anymore.

The employees suing the failed solar-panel maker for not giving them enough notice before its abrupt shutdown last summer are now accusing Solyndra of running its bankruptcy for the benefit of secured lender Argonaut Ventures I LLC.

With Solyndra slated to sell off its remaining assets over the next months after failing to find a white knight to restart operations, the former employees said “it’s pure pretense” that selling assets “for pennies on the dollar” will benefit them. After all, bankruptcy laws require Solyndra to pay off hundreds of millions of secured debt before the former employees can be paid on their lower-ranking claims.

“The debtors are readying Argonaut’s collateral for sale and using their bankruptcy cases and this court as a friendly forum to liquidate Argonaut’s collateral for Argonaut,” the employees said in court papers filed Tuesday. “In effect, the debtors are burning down their house to stay warm. Unfortunately, creditors like the [former employees] are left out in the cold.”

Also irking the creditors is the dumping of the glass tubes used in Solyndra’s solar panels, which Bankruptcy Beat previously blogged about. Citing a post from former Fox News host Glenn Beck’s news and opinion website, the Blaze, the former employees complain that Solyndra “literally trashed an opportunity” to return the tubes to the vendor and settle its multimillion-dollar claim against Solyndra.

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To View The Entire Article, Please Visit:

http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2012/02/02/ex-solyndra-workers-blast-company-lender/