THE CARS, PART 3
Startup plug-in vehicle maker Bright Automotive announced today that it is closing down.
While General Motors had invested $5 million in the company, Bright had relied on the hope that the U.S. Department of Energy would grant it low-interest loans under the advanced-technology vehicle manufacturing program.
A letter from its CEO and COO to Energy Secretary Steven Chu notes that the Indiana company has waited more than three years for a DoE verdict on applications it submitted in December 2008.
'Unacceptable to us and our investors'
"Last week, we received the fourth 'near final' Conditional Commitment Letter since September 2010," Bright CEO Ruben Munger and COO Mike Donoughe wrote In the letter, which withdraws its loan application.
"Each new letter arrived with more onerous terms than the last."
"The first three were workable for us," wrote Munger and Donoughe, "but the last was so outlandish that the most rational and objective persons would likely conclude that your team was negotiating in bad faith."
The two had written a week earlier to Secretary Chu that the DoE's latest terms were "unacceptable to us and our potential investors."
Earliest terms the easiest
According to a Bright source, over the years the DoE negotiating team would claim that agreement was close, but that "we couldn't get consensus" on the 10-member board that decided on loan applications.
So each new draft contained additional and more onerous requirements.
The DoE first required increasingly detailed agreements with partners--out of which came a $5 million investment by GM Ventures in August 2010, an agreement with AM General for van assembly late last year, and various other signed vendor contracts. In today's letter, Munger and Donoughe claim that in 2010, the DoE had urged them to link with an established automaker, and promised that if they did so, loans would be approved in "weeks, not months."
Increasing match, loan spending ban
More problematic for the private financiers, the DoE also steadily increased the level of matching funds Bright was required to raise.
For the earliest loan recipients in June 2009--Ford, Nissan, and Tesla--that level was at roughly 20 percent.
But Bright's required match on a $314 million loan application grew from $120 million in late 2010 to $240 million last year, which the company reluctantly agreed to.
But then in the final round this year, it grew again, to $345 million--or more than the total loan Bright had requested.
Perhaps most onerous of all, the DoE newly insisted that every penny of privately invested capital be spent first, before Bright could draw down any of its DoE funding.
There were also fine-grained milestones to be met in design, engineering, even marketing, that would be reviewed quarterly.
False words, false hope?
In the end, Bright never managed to put more than a few prototype vans on the road.
And 1,175 days after its first application, the company could wait no longer.
Bright's executives minced few words in laying out the impact of the DoE's lengthy decision-making process. Their letter says,
The ineffectiveness of the DOE to execute its program harms commercial enterprise as it not only interfered with the capital markets; it placed American companies at the whim of approval by a group of bureaucrats.
Today at your own ARPA-E conference, Fred Smith, the remarkable leader of FedEx, made the compelling case to reduce our dependence on oil; a product whose price is manipulated by a cartel which has caused the greatest wealth transfer in our history from the pockets of working people and businesses to countries, many of whom are not our allies.
And yet, having in hand a tremendous tool for progress in this critically strategic battle -- a tool that drew the country’s best to your door -- you failed not only in the deployment of funds from ATVM but in dissipating these efforts against not just false hope, but false words.
While General Motors had invested $5 million in the company, Bright had relied on the hope that the U.S. Department of Energy would grant it low-interest loans under the advanced-technology vehicle manufacturing program.
A letter from its CEO and COO to Energy Secretary Steven Chu notes that the Indiana company has waited more than three years for a DoE verdict on applications it submitted in December 2008.
'Unacceptable to us and our investors'
"Last week, we received the fourth 'near final' Conditional Commitment Letter since September 2010," Bright CEO Ruben Munger and COO Mike Donoughe wrote In the letter, which withdraws its loan application.
"Each new letter arrived with more onerous terms than the last."
"The first three were workable for us," wrote Munger and Donoughe, "but the last was so outlandish that the most rational and objective persons would likely conclude that your team was negotiating in bad faith."
The two had written a week earlier to Secretary Chu that the DoE's latest terms were "unacceptable to us and our potential investors."
Earliest terms the easiest
According to a Bright source, over the years the DoE negotiating team would claim that agreement was close, but that "we couldn't get consensus" on the 10-member board that decided on loan applications.
So each new draft contained additional and more onerous requirements.
The DoE first required increasingly detailed agreements with partners--out of which came a $5 million investment by GM Ventures in August 2010, an agreement with AM General for van assembly late last year, and various other signed vendor contracts. In today's letter, Munger and Donoughe claim that in 2010, the DoE had urged them to link with an established automaker, and promised that if they did so, loans would be approved in "weeks, not months."
Increasing match, loan spending ban
More problematic for the private financiers, the DoE also steadily increased the level of matching funds Bright was required to raise.
For the earliest loan recipients in June 2009--Ford, Nissan, and Tesla--that level was at roughly 20 percent.
But Bright's required match on a $314 million loan application grew from $120 million in late 2010 to $240 million last year, which the company reluctantly agreed to.
But then in the final round this year, it grew again, to $345 million--or more than the total loan Bright had requested.
Perhaps most onerous of all, the DoE newly insisted that every penny of privately invested capital be spent first, before Bright could draw down any of its DoE funding.
There were also fine-grained milestones to be met in design, engineering, even marketing, that would be reviewed quarterly.
False words, false hope?
In the end, Bright never managed to put more than a few prototype vans on the road.
And 1,175 days after its first application, the company could wait no longer.
Bright's executives minced few words in laying out the impact of the DoE's lengthy decision-making process. Their letter says,
The ineffectiveness of the DOE to execute its program harms commercial enterprise as it not only interfered with the capital markets; it placed American companies at the whim of approval by a group of bureaucrats.
Today at your own ARPA-E conference, Fred Smith, the remarkable leader of FedEx, made the compelling case to reduce our dependence on oil; a product whose price is manipulated by a cartel which has caused the greatest wealth transfer in our history from the pockets of working people and businesses to countries, many of whom are not our allies.
And yet, having in hand a tremendous tool for progress in this critically strategic battle -- a tool that drew the country’s best to your door -- you failed not only in the deployment of funds from ATVM but in dissipating these efforts against not just false hope, but false words.
You know you have made it to THE TOP when WHITE HOUSE staff put a “HIT” on one of your teams! The following information has been provided by investigators from multiple agencies and news organizations:
Their retribution attack weapons included: “Honey-Traps”, Hatchet Job Articles, Blogger Attacks, Google search engine manipulations, Employer database sabotage, Moles, Animated attack videos.. The Works!
BUT!.. WAIT TIL YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT:
EVERY MAJOR TOP FEDERAL STAFFER, AND ASSOCIATED AGENCY HEADS, FORCED TO RESIGN, 8+ FEDERAL INVESTIGATIONS LAUNCHED ON THEM, TWO FEDERAL LAWSUITS (AGAINST THE BAD GUYS) IN COURT BEFORE FEDERAL JUDGES… AND THAT’S NOT EVEN THE MOST INTERESTING PART…
So… one of the teams won a Congressional award and then the feds invited them into a special program where they accidentally saw a crime-thing they weren’t supposed to see… then they reported the crime to federal law enforcement and Congress, like they were supposed to do… then… THE BAD GUYS decided they wanted to engage in a little retribution… That turned out to be one of their poorer ideas…
SEE ALSO: http://www.paybackpolitics.org
When the White House Press office says “Kill ‘em”, and points to members of the public, they mean it! Whooooeeee! They carpet-bomb you with fake blogger attack articles saying you are a “bad date”, you steal food from puppies, you comb your hair funny… they are ruthless. They have these shill tabloids that they use as fronts, you see.
Thanks to numerous network news broadcasts, the big secret investigation is no longer a secret.
If you are a credentialed reporter, we are glad to meet you at the local GAO, FBI, CIA, NSA, SEC office, or Federal Court Room, of your choice, and go over the very juicy details. (because some of them are helping us.) NOBODY, expected Eddie Snowden and now we find out we can subpoena recordings and videos of the bad guys doing bad things: Cool!.
These folks DO NOT get to attack taxpayers and citizens because those members of the public reported crimes: That IS NOT the way it is supposed to work. So Far: Multiple indictments of bad guys involved in corruption, multiple federal lawsuits filed against corrupt politicians, multiple federal investigations underway… Says CORRUPTION BUSTERS: “You can write all of the anonymous blogger attack articles you want and try to kill our careers, dating lives and brands but our investigators, and friendly agencies, will fill the jails with your guys and the HR files with their resignation and termination slips! You did crimes with our tax money, and our government, and you attacked our people for reporting it, and that is not cool!”
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
Q. How do I research a federal crime investigation:
A. You call up the PRESS OFFICE for the FBI, CIA, NSA, GAO, Senate Ethics Committees, SEC, DIA or any other Three Letter Agency (TLA). They all have very easy to find Press Office contact information on the web. Some of them are down-right friendly and delighted to get a call. If any of them tell you: “we can’t comment on an on-going investigation”, that is a good thing. We like the ones that are “ongoing” and not “stone-walled”.
To go deeper, try the CRIME SCHOOL at http://www.corruptionbusters.info
You can also call federal law enforcement agencies and have them use the following keywords in their crime database: Department of Energy, Steven Chu, Lachlan Seward, Section 136, Solyndra, Fisker, Abound, and related names.
You will get either more info, less info or obstructed info depending on your political affiliation and the political affiliation of who you are asking. Scott and most of the Team are “Independent”. They will assist with investigations on crooks from ANY party.
Q. This sounds like something from a movie. Do big political scandals like this really happen?
A. Ahem… Watergate, Lewinsky, Solyndra, Contra-Gate, THIS THING, The VA Scandal, Bridge-Gate, ENRON, Bernie Madoff, ABSCAM, The LIBOR Scandal, Fast & Furious, Snowden, The British Tabloid Scandal, etc… Yep, it actually happens every day in Washington…mostly because voters let them. Voters – Please, Don’t vote for incumbents. Start fresh with Independents that guarantee to enact anti-corruption laws.
Kinda makes you want to pay attention to the news, huh?.. AND VOTE!!!!
Q. How big was this scandal?
A. Federal investigators are up to $290+ Billion Dollars, and still counting. That’s $290+B of Your Tax Dollars…
Q. Are you paranoid about security?
A. Now that everything has started going public, it isn’t such a big deal anymore. We recently met a technician from a federal agency who can get into any computer or cell phone of any leader, Senator or Congressman with two clicks of his mouse. We now assume everything is monitored and just never say anything over an electronic device we don’t expect to see on 60 Minutes next week. Plus there are the evil off-shore hackers. Everyone needs to be careful. No server is safe. One Banzai has a cellphone that is so bugged, it is called the “HOTLINE”. We can text or call on it if we want to send a direct communication to a federal agency because we can see that so many ports and routes are going in and out of it. Big Fun! In one of our lawsuits the naughty politicos wanted to slam a cone of silence on the case and seal the files. We said: “No Way”. This is public information. As you can see, in any newspaper, almost every major public and corporate network has now been broken into by hackers. Surf safely.
Q. What is the “RICO” Case you want to see filed?
A. THIS WIKIPEDIA link has a very good explanation. It puts everything on public record so nobody can say any charges are unfair or biased
Q. What has been the most frustrating thing about this?
A. The attacks on us by our own elected officials and the fact that every time we try to talk about it with one of them, they just up and quit! AT least 30 other companies are having this same experience trying to get a fair hearing.
Q. It sounds like some guys in Washington are really pissed at you. Does that make it hard to get a just hearing?
A. The bad ones that are just into it to steal money do not like us at all. The good people who are trying to serve the nation, and there still are a bunch of those left, help us quite a bit. It works out. Luckily the Founding Fathers came up with this whole “balance of power” thing. It was genius.
Q. Have your investigators hunted down, tracked down, all of the bad guys involved in this?
A. Yes. Almost every major agency and investigative committee has multiple investigations under-way. Check the news; Cover-ups, IRS Hits and insider trading scams are the talk of Washington these days.
Q. How can you prove you lost any money, or had damages, because of their bad things?
A. Easy! There was a certain set of money slotted out for our team in the U.S. Treasury. As we were about to get it, for some government contracts, the bad guys sabotaged it within the federal process, in violation of the law, on multiple occasions and then took that very same money and gave it to their friends, who were our competitors. The FBI, NSA, GAO and many other agencies have been able to track this money right down to the cents. The bad guy’s friends put some of that money in their pockets and then took some other parts of that money and built copies of our products and services. The SEC shows that they posted their financial records showing that, even though they made crappy copies of our products and got sued by many people, they say they still made billions of dollars in profit by using that U.S. Treasury money. So we have very hard, factual, documented metrics, that any investigator can review, supplied by the bad guys, that clearly show the amounts of money in question. The numbers don’t lie and you can “follow the money”, emails, texts, phone calls and restaurant videos right around to all of the conduits. There are two top Federal judges reviewing all of this right now. They are getting lots of pressure to not issue any rulings until after the mid-term elections. We believe justice will, eventually, prevail… with a little help from the sidelines…
Q. How do you know it was white House staff that engaged in character assassination efforts as payback for testifying about the crimes?
A. We now have video testimony and evidence of over 80 well-known Senators, Governors, Journalists, Celebrities, Washington Executives and Authors specifically stating that White House staff regularly ran a character assassination program against them. New participants, to the video collection, are being added daily. We have former White House aids and contractors who witnessed it. We have IT tracked attack data. We have direct correlated tie-backs and we have been informed that we have subpoena access to federal intelligence and law enforcement recordings documenting it.
Q. Isn’t this just a political attack on the Democrats?
A. Some of us helped get Obama elected, then we saw his people engage in crimes. Then federal investigators asked us to testify and they revealed more crimes and confirmed details. Some of the Banzai’s were top Democrats, but saw their own people doing crimes against the public. Discouragement set in. Now, most of the Banzai’s are “independent”. So, No. It’s not about politics, it’s about law enforcement!
Q. Aren’t you worried about more retribution things happening to you folks?
A. Whistle-blowers Eddie Snowden, Glen Greenwald, Julian Assange, etc. have developed a thing called “The Deadman Switch”. We took this protection process to the next level. We believe we have more encrypted file sets distributed to investigative reporters, senate aids and law enforcement specialists, than anyone has ever prepared before.
Q. We see that Monica Lewinsky is out on the lecture tour about an organized character assassination attack put on her in order to seek to discredit her as a potential court witness. That seems timely?
A. She is promoting the fact that cyber attacks are never cool. She is right. They are never cool! They, especially, are never cool when your employers and elected officials do it to you in retribution for telling the truth!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOST VIEWED COMMENTS FROM READERS:
” I heard that all of the so-called recent “screw-ups” by the Secret Service are not about them being incompetent but more about them being discouraged…about them being the ones who are standing in the back of all of the rooms when the big politicos are doing shady things…about witnessing crimes and not feeling motivated. Is this accurate?” TOM – Chicago
“Why don’t we have laws to protect these sorts of things from happening? Or do we have laws to stop these things but nobody is enforcing them? “ SANDRA- Tampa
“Wow, You mean I pay my taxes to these folks so they can use my money to put hits on me if I speak up? Finally, these goombo’s have figured out the real way the Constitution is supposed to work. I KNEW we were doing it wrong all of these decades…” MARTINE – Reno
“Neato, so there IS an upside to the fact that the NSA has recorded every single communication in Washington DC since 2001, finally, a pay-off…” TOM – Newark
Yes.. We know about the typos.. they are getting fixed. THX
Their retribution attack weapons included: “Honey-Traps”, Hatchet Job Articles, Blogger Attacks, Google search engine manipulations, Employer database sabotage, Moles, Animated attack videos.. The Works!
BUT!.. WAIT TIL YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT:
EVERY MAJOR TOP FEDERAL STAFFER, AND ASSOCIATED AGENCY HEADS, FORCED TO RESIGN, 8+ FEDERAL INVESTIGATIONS LAUNCHED ON THEM, TWO FEDERAL LAWSUITS (AGAINST THE BAD GUYS) IN COURT BEFORE FEDERAL JUDGES… AND THAT’S NOT EVEN THE MOST INTERESTING PART…
So… one of the teams won a Congressional award and then the feds invited them into a special program where they accidentally saw a crime-thing they weren’t supposed to see… then they reported the crime to federal law enforcement and Congress, like they were supposed to do… then… THE BAD GUYS decided they wanted to engage in a little retribution… That turned out to be one of their poorer ideas…
SEE ALSO: http://www.paybackpolitics.org
When the White House Press office says “Kill ‘em”, and points to members of the public, they mean it! Whooooeeee! They carpet-bomb you with fake blogger attack articles saying you are a “bad date”, you steal food from puppies, you comb your hair funny… they are ruthless. They have these shill tabloids that they use as fronts, you see.
Thanks to numerous network news broadcasts, the big secret investigation is no longer a secret.
If you are a credentialed reporter, we are glad to meet you at the local GAO, FBI, CIA, NSA, SEC office, or Federal Court Room, of your choice, and go over the very juicy details. (because some of them are helping us.) NOBODY, expected Eddie Snowden and now we find out we can subpoena recordings and videos of the bad guys doing bad things: Cool!.
These folks DO NOT get to attack taxpayers and citizens because those members of the public reported crimes: That IS NOT the way it is supposed to work. So Far: Multiple indictments of bad guys involved in corruption, multiple federal lawsuits filed against corrupt politicians, multiple federal investigations underway… Says CORRUPTION BUSTERS: “You can write all of the anonymous blogger attack articles you want and try to kill our careers, dating lives and brands but our investigators, and friendly agencies, will fill the jails with your guys and the HR files with their resignation and termination slips! You did crimes with our tax money, and our government, and you attacked our people for reporting it, and that is not cool!”
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
Q. How do I research a federal crime investigation:
A. You call up the PRESS OFFICE for the FBI, CIA, NSA, GAO, Senate Ethics Committees, SEC, DIA or any other Three Letter Agency (TLA). They all have very easy to find Press Office contact information on the web. Some of them are down-right friendly and delighted to get a call. If any of them tell you: “we can’t comment on an on-going investigation”, that is a good thing. We like the ones that are “ongoing” and not “stone-walled”.
To go deeper, try the CRIME SCHOOL at http://www.corruptionbusters.info
You can also call federal law enforcement agencies and have them use the following keywords in their crime database: Department of Energy, Steven Chu, Lachlan Seward, Section 136, Solyndra, Fisker, Abound, and related names.
You will get either more info, less info or obstructed info depending on your political affiliation and the political affiliation of who you are asking. Scott and most of the Team are “Independent”. They will assist with investigations on crooks from ANY party.
Q. This sounds like something from a movie. Do big political scandals like this really happen?
A. Ahem… Watergate, Lewinsky, Solyndra, Contra-Gate, THIS THING, The VA Scandal, Bridge-Gate, ENRON, Bernie Madoff, ABSCAM, The LIBOR Scandal, Fast & Furious, Snowden, The British Tabloid Scandal, etc… Yep, it actually happens every day in Washington…mostly because voters let them. Voters – Please, Don’t vote for incumbents. Start fresh with Independents that guarantee to enact anti-corruption laws.
Kinda makes you want to pay attention to the news, huh?.. AND VOTE!!!!
Q. How big was this scandal?
A. Federal investigators are up to $290+ Billion Dollars, and still counting. That’s $290+B of Your Tax Dollars…
Q. Are you paranoid about security?
A. Now that everything has started going public, it isn’t such a big deal anymore. We recently met a technician from a federal agency who can get into any computer or cell phone of any leader, Senator or Congressman with two clicks of his mouse. We now assume everything is monitored and just never say anything over an electronic device we don’t expect to see on 60 Minutes next week. Plus there are the evil off-shore hackers. Everyone needs to be careful. No server is safe. One Banzai has a cellphone that is so bugged, it is called the “HOTLINE”. We can text or call on it if we want to send a direct communication to a federal agency because we can see that so many ports and routes are going in and out of it. Big Fun! In one of our lawsuits the naughty politicos wanted to slam a cone of silence on the case and seal the files. We said: “No Way”. This is public information. As you can see, in any newspaper, almost every major public and corporate network has now been broken into by hackers. Surf safely.
Q. What is the “RICO” Case you want to see filed?
A. THIS WIKIPEDIA link has a very good explanation. It puts everything on public record so nobody can say any charges are unfair or biased
Q. What has been the most frustrating thing about this?
A. The attacks on us by our own elected officials and the fact that every time we try to talk about it with one of them, they just up and quit! AT least 30 other companies are having this same experience trying to get a fair hearing.
Q. It sounds like some guys in Washington are really pissed at you. Does that make it hard to get a just hearing?
A. The bad ones that are just into it to steal money do not like us at all. The good people who are trying to serve the nation, and there still are a bunch of those left, help us quite a bit. It works out. Luckily the Founding Fathers came up with this whole “balance of power” thing. It was genius.
Q. Have your investigators hunted down, tracked down, all of the bad guys involved in this?
A. Yes. Almost every major agency and investigative committee has multiple investigations under-way. Check the news; Cover-ups, IRS Hits and insider trading scams are the talk of Washington these days.
Q. How can you prove you lost any money, or had damages, because of their bad things?
A. Easy! There was a certain set of money slotted out for our team in the U.S. Treasury. As we were about to get it, for some government contracts, the bad guys sabotaged it within the federal process, in violation of the law, on multiple occasions and then took that very same money and gave it to their friends, who were our competitors. The FBI, NSA, GAO and many other agencies have been able to track this money right down to the cents. The bad guy’s friends put some of that money in their pockets and then took some other parts of that money and built copies of our products and services. The SEC shows that they posted their financial records showing that, even though they made crappy copies of our products and got sued by many people, they say they still made billions of dollars in profit by using that U.S. Treasury money. So we have very hard, factual, documented metrics, that any investigator can review, supplied by the bad guys, that clearly show the amounts of money in question. The numbers don’t lie and you can “follow the money”, emails, texts, phone calls and restaurant videos right around to all of the conduits. There are two top Federal judges reviewing all of this right now. They are getting lots of pressure to not issue any rulings until after the mid-term elections. We believe justice will, eventually, prevail… with a little help from the sidelines…
Q. How do you know it was white House staff that engaged in character assassination efforts as payback for testifying about the crimes?
A. We now have video testimony and evidence of over 80 well-known Senators, Governors, Journalists, Celebrities, Washington Executives and Authors specifically stating that White House staff regularly ran a character assassination program against them. New participants, to the video collection, are being added daily. We have former White House aids and contractors who witnessed it. We have IT tracked attack data. We have direct correlated tie-backs and we have been informed that we have subpoena access to federal intelligence and law enforcement recordings documenting it.
Q. Isn’t this just a political attack on the Democrats?
A. Some of us helped get Obama elected, then we saw his people engage in crimes. Then federal investigators asked us to testify and they revealed more crimes and confirmed details. Some of the Banzai’s were top Democrats, but saw their own people doing crimes against the public. Discouragement set in. Now, most of the Banzai’s are “independent”. So, No. It’s not about politics, it’s about law enforcement!
Q. Aren’t you worried about more retribution things happening to you folks?
A. Whistle-blowers Eddie Snowden, Glen Greenwald, Julian Assange, etc. have developed a thing called “The Deadman Switch”. We took this protection process to the next level. We believe we have more encrypted file sets distributed to investigative reporters, senate aids and law enforcement specialists, than anyone has ever prepared before.
Q. We see that Monica Lewinsky is out on the lecture tour about an organized character assassination attack put on her in order to seek to discredit her as a potential court witness. That seems timely?
A. She is promoting the fact that cyber attacks are never cool. She is right. They are never cool! They, especially, are never cool when your employers and elected officials do it to you in retribution for telling the truth!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOST VIEWED COMMENTS FROM READERS:
” I heard that all of the so-called recent “screw-ups” by the Secret Service are not about them being incompetent but more about them being discouraged…about them being the ones who are standing in the back of all of the rooms when the big politicos are doing shady things…about witnessing crimes and not feeling motivated. Is this accurate?” TOM – Chicago
“Why don’t we have laws to protect these sorts of things from happening? Or do we have laws to stop these things but nobody is enforcing them? “ SANDRA- Tampa
“Wow, You mean I pay my taxes to these folks so they can use my money to put hits on me if I speak up? Finally, these goombo’s have figured out the real way the Constitution is supposed to work. I KNEW we were doing it wrong all of these decades…” MARTINE – Reno
“Neato, so there IS an upside to the fact that the NSA has recorded every single communication in Washington DC since 2001, finally, a pay-off…” TOM – Newark
Yes.. We know about the typos.. they are getting fixed. THX