(image:CNET)

BY EVAN BUSH

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

More bad news for President Obama ahead of his jobs speech -- Solyndra, a California company that benefited from a $535 million dollar stimulus loan and Mr. Obama’s public support shut its doors Wednesday and declared bankruptcy. Now, it’s being investigated by the FBI. ABC’s Brian Ross has the background:

“Up until the very end, the Obama administration said it was money well-spent: creating more than 3,000 jobs at a so-called green company that made solar panels. The company’s bankruptcy Wednesday punctured that claim and led Republicans in Congress to question whether undue influence by Obama campaign supporters was involved in what appears to be a half billion dollar hit for taxpayers.”

Solyndra has been under scrutiny after claims the Department of Energy showed favoritism to the company. iWatch News reports:

“The company, which counted among its investors a major fundraiser for President Obama, had received a half-billion dollar government loan following a fast-track approval process and involving an interest rate lower than other green projects [benefiting] from Energy Department help.”

Things got even messier Thursday -- the FBI and Energy Department inspectors raided Solyndra’s California offices. The San Jose Mercury News describes the scene:

“Federal agents swarmed around Solyndra’s campus in Fremont to execute a search warrant and interview laid-off employees … Employees were checked and asked to identify themselves on the way into one of the Solyndra buildings. ‘We are carrying out search warrants in relation to the DOE contract,’ an unidentified male FBI agent told an employee as he went in. ‘...We're just looking for stuff right now.’”

The Bay Citizen spoke to a former Solyndra employee, who wasn’t surprised to hear about the raid.

“I'm happy to see it, because documents sometimes have a way of getting shredded … Hopefully, the FBI will get down to what actually happened, because there really was a lot of money that was being infused into that company. There's no good reason that it went down the way it did.”

Forbes says this raid calls more than the just the loan into question -- but the entire solar industry:

“The real take-away is this: Can U.S. companies developing advanced solar technology compete against low-cost Chinese manufacturers who benefit from state support and a government policy to create markets at home and abroad for their products?”

The San Jose Mercury News  reports Solyndra employees were sent home last week without severance packages. A spokesman for the company speculated that the FBI was looking for information on the Obama administration’s loan guarantee.