Modern Political Money Laundering -- December 29, 2014

An Opinion Piece

I am not alleging any wrong-doing or any illegal activity

Everybody does it 

This is the way I imagine modern political money laundering is accomplished:

1. People who have the correct credentials, such as a Ph.D. from Yale, or an MBA from Harvard School of Business, AND the golden gift of gab, AND generally have no skeletons in their closet (e.g., pedophile) are given a government grant for a politically correct start-up, such as a battery manufacturing plant or a wind farm or a solar farm or a global warming think tank.

Tower of Song, Leonard Cohen
2. The salaries for the start-up are a) generous, b) guaranteed; c) provided to the CEO and directors; and, d) are sourced by the federal government.

3. The start-up is run like any other business entity, but a) IRS audits are not in the cards; and, b) the CEO and directors are expected to contribute heavily to the political party that made it all possible. This is community organizing at its best.

4. The best-known example was Solyndra. Solyndra is the poster child for political money laundering through start-up battery companies. See this post and/or the Solyndra tags at the bottom of the blog.

5. It appears we now have a poster child for solar farms: Ivanpah. See these links:

• Ivanpah, the tortoises -- October 10, 2010
• Ivanpah -- February 13, 2014
• Ivanpah -- February 14, 2014 
• Ivanpah -- October 10, 2014
• Ivanpah -- November 11, 2014
• Ivanpah -- November 17, 2014
• Ivanpah -- November 24, 2014
• Ivanpah -- December 29, 2014
• Ivanpah -- October 19, 2015
• Ivanpah -- March 19, 2016 
• Ivanpah -- forbearance agreements are confidential -- March 30, 2016 
• Ivanpah -- feels the burn -- May 22, 2016 
• Ivanpah -- CFC fries 6,000 birds yearly -- September 2, 2016

And so it goes.