Thursday, January 12, 2012

"Bankrupt Solyndra seeking to pay bonuses"

Hey! They make the same argument AIG did! And Fannie and Freddie!
[errr, exclamations! -ed]
Something about these government controlled entities...

From the Washington Times:

Now seems an unlikely time for handing out bonuses at bankrupt Solyndra LLC, but that’s the plan of company attorneys intending to dole out up to a half-million dollars to persuade key employees to stay put.
Nearly two dozen Solyndra employees could receive bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 each under a proposal filed by Solyndra’s attorneys in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The attorneys say the extra money will add motivation at a time when workers at the solar company have little job security and more responsibilities because so many of their colleagues have been fired.
The names of the bonus-eligible employees are not disclosed in the court filings that outline the bonus proposal. None of the employees is among the so-called corporate “insiders” — top officers or members of the board of directors, records show.

The proposed bonus recipients include nine equipment engineers, six general business and finance employees and up to two information technology workers.

The biggest bonus, for $50,000, would go to a Solyndra employee whose job title is listed as a senior director with a base salary of $206,499 per year. Two senior managers stand to receive bonuses of $30,000 and $32,500....MORE
HT: Reason's Hit&Run blog who has some comments.

In the case of AIG the pitch was they had to pay the retention bonus because the folks who wrote the CDS mess would leave and that they were the only folks who could unwind the trades.
My first thought was "Leave for where?"

With the current state of the solar biz my first thought is...

Of course this bonusing crap is nothing new for Solyndra, back in November our headline was:
Hogs at the Trough: As Solyndra Was Going Down Execs Collected Bonuses