The IRS went after Kaiser and his companies, demanding that they owed the federal government more than $72 million. He earned a BA from Harvard College in 1964 and an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1966. Called a “feebate” (fee and rebate) the tax would rise from 8 cents per gallon to $1.80 per gallon over 20 years. By 2011 Kaiser’s shares were worth $2.1 billion, while the family foundation he established held another $251 million in bank stock. Donate today to assist in promoting the principles of individual liberty in America. Said Grassley, “So with Solyndra, the government didn’t just lose out on its investment through the $535 million loan guarantees. It also is notorious in that its largest financial backer, George Kaiser, was a substantial supporter of President Barack Obama in 2008 and regularly visited the White House following the election. (His guilty conscience has been very lucrative.) The Wall Street Journal reports that George Kaiser, "a Tulsa oil billionaire who bundled campaign checks for Mr. Obama in 2008," is poised to accomplish one of the great scams of all time. All contents Copyright © 2003-2018 by Michael D. Bates. Kaiser and the White House have insisted these discussions were not about the Solyndra loan but concerned the priorities of the Kaiser Family Foundation, “including early childhood education and poverty, health care policy and energy policy,” according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity. Kaiser was born on July 29, 1942 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “Individuals should not be allowed to ‘park’ their assets in charities in order to preserve their assets in perpetuity, while simultaneously benefiting from a charitable contribution deduction.”, Questioned by the Washington Post, the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) said it passed a “full audit” by the IRS and, “the programs that the foundation has invested in, like early childhood development and reducing female incarceration rates in Oklahoma, have driven substantial behavioral and policy change in the community and state. I wonder if he gave it a thought. The financing documents were rewritten in February 2011 and gave priority to Argonaut for Tranche A. Kaiser personally donated $53,500 to Obama's presidential campaign in 2008. Why would a company controlled by GK have a role as Agent between the buyer and seller of SOL's assets? The company declared bankruptcy in September 2011, and 1,100 employees lost their jobs. TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.batesline.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/6143. Kaiser obviously wanted Solyndra to succeed, which makes it reasonable to believe he supported the loan, although he says he never engaged in direct lobbying. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Kaiser, in fact, is responsible for 16 of the 20 meetings that showed up on the White House logs. He is also the chairman and majority owner of BOK Financial Corporation, which owns Bank of Oklahoma. “Every day that you build this expanded facility, as you fill orders for solar panels to ship around the world, you’re demonstrating that the promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith – not anymore,” Obama said. There are some interesting twists and turns that seem to suggest that GKFF's investments have been protected to the detriment of federal taxpayers. Copyright 2021 Capital Research Center. In 2005, the Senate Finance Committee, then controlled by Republicans and chaired by Grassley, issued a staff memo that said this loophole “is now being used by wealthy individuals to avoid the private foundation rules.” The memo cited Kaiser’s foundation for giving just 0.2 percent in 2002. “Tax deductions for charitable contributions are intended to encourage transfer of wealth to those in need,” the memo said. Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content. Or do you want to protect massive tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires?”. We got to where we are by dumb luck.”. That said, this isn't one of those everyday stories. And we are poised to generate countless new jobs, good-paying middle-class jobs, right here in the United States of America.”. Kaiser explained that he had engaged in tax “avoidance,” which is legal, buying up companies such as Waterford Energy that had substantial operating losses he claimed as deductible. He gives to charity because he feels guilty—and he structures his non-profit foundation to avoid giving too much. On May 26, 2010 Obama visited the plant and praised the company as the future of the American economy. In the meetings on March 12, Kaiser met with former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Austan Goolsbee at 11 a.m., Senior Advisor Pete Rouse at 3 p.m., and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council Heather Higginbottom at 6:30 p.m. On the 13th, Kaiser met with Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Jason Furman at 9 a.m.... As TheDC previously reported, Solyndra officials, including Kaiser himself, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Barack Obama. He attended Central High School in Tulsa. Through Argonaut, the Kaiser Foundation invested $340 million in Solyndra. It’s a failed solar panel company that the Obama White House kept promoting despite warnings that it was going bankrupt. American Majority "training bomb": Saturday, September 17, 2011 was the previous entry in this blog. Were this the Bush administration it would be front page for months! Argonaut is an investment firm that is part of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, and was a one-third owner of Solyndra. The stories discuss Kaiser's fundraising for the Obama campaign, his visits to the Obama White House the week before the Solyndra guarantee was approved, the increasing level of his George Kaiser Family Foundation's investment vehicles in Solyndra, and Kaiser's Argonaut Ventures I moving first in line, ahead of the taxpayers, for repayment. George Kaiser is chairman of BOK Financial Corp. and owner of Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. Argonaut is headed by Steve Mitchell, who also served on Solyndra's board of directors. The future is here. (It should be noted that Kaiser was not an GPA investor.) An investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee into the unfolding scandal shows that White House officials ignored warnings by career government officials in the Office of Management and Budget and the Energy Department that Solyndra was “not ready for primetime.” White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden (and earlier chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore) pushed OMB to award the loan guarantee, according to documents obtained by the committee. He briefly considered joining the U.S. Foreign Service, but instead returned to Tulsa in 1966 to work for his father. Kaiser bought the Bank of Oklahoma in 1991 for $60 million; he owns about 54% of the publicly-traded bank. Educare has two Tulsa locations with a third on the way. We’re poised to transform the ways we power our homes and our cars and our businesses. George Kaiser Family Foundation is dedicated to making Tulsa the best city for children to be born, grow and succeed. The Kaiser Foundation owns Argonaut Ventures, a private investment firm which had $691 million in assets. Solyndra's Fremont, California, facility, by Monica's Dad on Flickr. A billionaire, he lives in Tulsa in a $1.6 million home that’s less extravagant than the homes of some of his top level employees. Krasting asks some questions: Krasting considers the impact to the taxpayers: Argonaut's (very good) lawyers make their position very clear as to who owns the assets in the A/R accounts. He is a journalist who reports for the Daily Signal,…. Congress is exploring why the doomed loan was made and if it’s connected to the fact that Kaiser – whose foundation owned one-third of Solyndra – raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama in the 2008 presidential race. George B. Kaiser founded Argonaut Private Equity LLC and Excelerate Energy LP. [1] Kaiser… Mr. Kaiser holds the position of Chairman of Kaiser Wholesale, Inc., Chairman for BOK Financial Corp. and President & Chief Executive Officer at GBK Corp. (Oklahoma). ... a managing director at Kaiser's venture capital firm, Argonaut Private Equity. He speculates that Argonaut might be able to profit from the purchase of Solyndra as a company to be able to use its Net Operating Losses (NOLs) to offset income from other energy-related investments. If that's so, I'm torn: It's better for Tulsa if GKFF doesn't get soaked by the failure of Solyndra, but as a fiscal conservative I have a problem with a government guarantee, particularly one that has a strong whiff of political favoritism, that gives investors nothing but upside while taxpayers break even at best. In late September the House Energy and Commerce Committee subpoenaed Solyndra’s CEO and chief financial officer to testify about the matter. 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