[ April 17, 2024 ]
Forget Solyndra, check out Areva!
“When, at the beginning of the year [2018], I discovered the scope of this case, I forwarded to the FBI director all the elements I had been able to get my hands on,” Marc Eichinger told French Economic monthly magazine Capital (1). This private investigator specialized in the fight against serious international crime and corruption is very familiar with the case: he is the one who wrote the report submitted in April 2010 to Areva’s security department to denounce the potential fraud linked to the acquisition of Uramin three years earlier.
Shocked by this new case of corruption in the United States, he also referred the whole case to the French courts, causing the investigation services to overheat in the middle of the summer.
Areva buys Ausra from Al Gore, one of the main shareholders
At the heart of this new scandal, which has not yet broken out in the United States, are the conditions under which Areva acquired, in February 2010, Ausra, an American startup specialized in solar energy.
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- Officially, according to the French group, the purchase price was reportedly $243 million. Problem: an Ausra manager claims to have sold the company for… 275 million.
- Among the shareholders who sold Ausra was Al Gore. The former Democratic candidate had acquired his shares in Ausra, totaling $123.3 million, through the two investment funds he chairs or advises, Kleiner Perkins (formerly KPCB) and Generation Investment Management.
- But a few weeks before this acquisition, in January 2010, a meeting of the Nuclear Policy Council, held in the Elysée Presidential Palace in the presence of all the main players, concluded that it was urgently needed to be recapitalized. The operation was carried out a few months later: the company obtained 900 million euros ($1.2 billion), $800 million being paid by the Kuwait sovereign fund, the KIA, and $400 million by the French State.
- In this very constrained environment, one can wonder about the opportunity to acquire Ausra. Especially since the start-up itself is in a difficult financial situation, and its technology (concentrated solar thermal energy) is not revolutionary. It is even a little outdated since the first solar power plants of this type were built in the 1980s.
- Moreover, the transaction is clearly overpaid: as can be seen from Areva’s own 2010 annual report, the difference between the real value of the assets and the sale price amounts to some 165 million dollars!
Why did Areva agree to give up so much money for Ausra? Marc Eichinger asked himself this question for several years.
To further his investigation, Marc Eichinger went to the United States. There, he studied the incredible story of the plant that Areva was responsible for building for the Department of Energy, which, as we will see, is directly related to the Ausra … and Al Gore.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, Al Gore’s “candy store”
- This future facility was supposed to convert the 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium that Washington had pledged to remove into mox (a nuclear fuel) as part of a disarmament agreement with Russia.
- The cost to build the plant was estimated at $1.4 billion, and commissioning was scheduled for 2005.
- Eleven years later, it had still not open. And according to a US Army report submitted to the US government, its bill had risen to… 17.4 billion dollars, and its opening postponed to 2048!
- Since then, the US Congress had come to the obvious conclusion, and it terminated the project, called “Mox Services”. Cost for the federal budget some $7.7 billion, in total waste.
- In fact, this case should have ended much earlier. As early as 2009, there were alarming reports of Areva and its American partner’s inability to build the plant. And Duke Energy, the only local nuclear power plant owner willing to use Mox as fuel, had indicated after a series of failed tests that it would not choose this solution.
- Now that the production of the future Areva plant no longer has any outlet, the project should have been abandoned at this time.
No so fast…
Instead, the Obama administration and Areva persisted. And, miraculously, a few months later, a new customer for Mox shows up: the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
This unexpected salvation plan allowed the Obama administration to convince Congress to continue funding the work.
Anything unusual?
Not much. Except that TVA is very close… to Al Gore’s family!
The father of the future American vice-president, himself a Democratic senator from Tennessee for several decades, made TVA his “thing” to the point that, during the 2000 presidential race, the American press would present VAT as the “candy store” of the Democratic candidate’s family.
As a result, the intervention of this federal agency in the Mox Services case, which occurred at the time of Areva’s acquisition of Ausra from Al Gore, raises questions. Wouldn’t that be a case of quiproquos?
Enter John Kerry
The case does not only involve the former vice-president. Three other names in the Democratic Party are mentioned in the file. Starting with John Kerry, Barack Obama’s future Secretary of State during his second term.
Kerry was then a senator and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. At the end of January 2009, during a public senatorial hearing and in the presence of Al Gore, he drew up a long eulogy of Ausra, stating that this company represents the future.
Coincidentally, John Kerry is also a shareholder of the fund that invested in Ausra!
John Doerr’s Solyndra
The second leading figure of the Democratic Party involved in the story is American businessman John Doerr. He co-leads Kleiner Perkins and he is known to be one of the party’s leading fundraisers. He is very close to the Clintons and the Obama administration: in February 2009, the White House catapulted him to the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, an organization that advises the president. The many financial benefits John Doerr will receive during the Obama presidency will generate many scandals (including the Solyndra affair in 2011), forcing Energy Secretary Steven Chu to step down.
Harry Reid
The third Democrat involved is Senator Harry Reid.
- He too has done a lot to publicly support Ausra, especially in his state of Nevada, by offering land for solar power plants.
- He is also an unconditional supporter of Areva: in 2010, he pleaded with Barack Obama that the government grant the French group the $2 billion repayable loan to finance a uranium enrichment plant project in Idaho.
- The latter, called “Eagle Rock”, will finally be abandoned in 2012.
Never three without four musketeers
Finally, the Obama administration will be very generous with Ausra: in February 2010, at the time of its acquisition by Areva, Ausra received a federal grant (non-repayable) for $13.9 million for a solar plant project in California, the cost of which is estimated at $40 million.
And according to Marc Eichinger, this public subsidy, which represents 34% of the construction cost, is the fifth largest subsidy (in relation to the construction cost) granted by Obama’s US Treasury as part of the financing of renewable energies.
Bottom line
Despite all this, Ausra, who was renamed Areva Solar, has never generated anything but losses.
And it was definitively liquidated in 2015.
Construction of the Mox Services plant has also been halted, but the bill continued to rise for the U.S. federal budget. To safely store weapons-grade plutonium (highly unstable material) that should have been transformed into Mox fuel, Washington would spend some $19.9 billion, according to a Department of Energy study.
To recoup its losses, the Trump Administration should trigger a corruption trial against the French company, and, in the event of a win, the rule is that the amount of the fine should cover the total financial loss.
The prosecutor could simply claim from Areva the $243 million corresponding to the amount of the acquisition of Ausra. But it can also very well demand repayment of all the federal expenses incurred in the case, namely: the $7.7 billion invested in the mox plant that has never been built, the $19.9 billion that will be spent on the management of unprocessed plutonium and the $243 million for the acquisition of Ausra, for a total of almost $28 billion.
The Department of Justice would do well to be a little less timid, and to take lessons from the Democrat’s DOJ and the way they weaponized it in the Trump Russia hoax. They should launch a serious criminal investigation into the four musketeers …
(1) Capital.fr
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38 Comments
5 years ago
Don’t get your hopes up!
Our latest AG has no plans to pursue charges on Hillary.
It appears to be the SOS with a different swamp face.
I would be thrilled to be wrong.
Besides Reid has pancreatic cancer
By Manu Raju, CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent
Updated 2057 GMT (0457 HKT) May 14, 2018
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/harry-reid-cancer-surgery-pancreas/
5 years ago
So an additional definition of “the swamp” Sdly Trump hasn’t done much on this promise.
5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Regarding Trump and the swamp. His hands are tied behind his back, it has been so since becoming President. It is a marvel the man has accomplished that which he has to this day. Trump has flaws but the Democrats are beyond flawed, they are evil, not unlike their ally, Islam.
5 years ago
Reply to
Ziggy46
Notice how even the GOP did not LEGISLATE his tax cuts as permanent.
There has been no vote on USMCA that has replaced NAFTA and that could have been voted on and passed even when RINO LYING RYAN was Speaker of the House. It never came up for a vote so that can be easily undone. DEMS and the RINOS do not want the citizenry to prosper. That takes away from their bottom line. They want illegals and educated VISA abuse for cheap labor to displace Americans. Foreigners are happy to work for less for green cards and chain migration. DEMS and RINOS will do their best to crash to get people to vote for government money and be enslaved.
5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
CA LEADS the way for extreme corruptibility! Look to CA for what will be done to destroy this state. Do this first and then see what takes place elsewhere. NY and Mass. are leaders in the not so nice criminal acts. The only improvement of the forests is that they are thinning some of them so don’t count on this to continue with the track record that CA corrupt government has.
There is even a smidgen of road improvement-don’t count on that lasting long either. Just accept that the worst will continue to happen as it is now because the damn-Dems JUST DON’T GIVE A RATS ASS ABOUT truth and honesty.
5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Regarding Trump and the swamp. His hands are tied behind his back, it has been so since becoming President. It is a marvel the man has accomplished that which he has to this day. Trump has flaws but the Democrats are beyond flawed, they are evil, not unlike their ally, Islam.
5 years ago
Nothing will come of this sleazy Areva corruption and those in the thick of its criminality. Anyone not an advocate of the corrupt Democratic Party holds no doubt about it being factual. No one not of this criminal enterprise is acutely aware it will become a footnote in the history of the Democrats’ legacy of corruption. If it were Trump or some other Republican the perfidious likes of CNN and others of the Leftist MSM, the broadcasting of this corruption would become endless. Republicans would face an unprecedented inquiry or investigation by the bilious likes of Mueller or other FBI henchmen.
It, likely, goes deeper than Kerry, Reid and Gore when it comes to the Democrats there is a trickle down effect, every Democrat benefits. It is assured that Americans not of this elitist party, especially American citizens, will ever prosper from their self-serving greed.
The political base of the Democrats intermingled with the betrayers of the FBI and DOJ is rotted to its very core. The draining of the said swamp is a joke; the bottom-feeders are flourishing and prosperous while they dare to condemn the Constitutional Republic and Joe and Joanne America. Not to overlook or dismiss, the continuous attacks on the President from this fetid gaggle of mobsters and their enablers.
5 years ago
Reply to
Ziggy46
Trump tried. He hasn’t given up but an honest assessment is things are not looking good.
People have to see that and start doing more to save our country. The 2020 election has started.
The media will only help Trump opposition and down right lie. It will be up to us to expose them or we will get a DEM President. People are not aware of how insane it has become out there.
5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Indeed, Trump has tried with his hands bound by the Democrats and their henchman Muller, to name only one. The MSM will conjure more fake-news in an attempt to destroy not only his re-election bid but the man and his family. You are right, Felix, American voters are unaware of the ramifications if or when the Neo-Nazi Democrats regain the White House.
5 years ago
Reply to
Ziggy46
The MSM is nothing more than the propaganda arm of the democrat party. I spent several years working with a journalist for our local ABC affiliate. He told me more than once they can make someone look really smart or really stupid: it just depends on how they write the story.
5 years ago
Reply to
Ziggy46
Agree. They are part of Dem/clinton mafia so was going after Trump with fake cases to prevent their cases getting exposed. .
And why can they not open 10 special prosecutors to go after dem cases ? why only Demonrat mafia mueller gets to do his fake hoax case ?
Clinton mafia still active after Trump takeover as they kill another witness
to email investigation http://tinyurl.com/y8p9cv5l
They know their hold overs in FBI / DOJ /NSC will help them out !
Unless they are totally purged including Left/Liberal judges to keep out their bias …its uphill task to prosecute them.
5 years ago
Reply to
Suresh
Absolutely, those mentioned and the entire Democratic Party are a ‘Syndicate’, not unlike the Mafia. They will stop at nothing to lead the people, voters for their vote. Corruption is so thick during elections, one’s feet stick to the floor. Murder, yes, nothing is out of the equation to retain power, treason and hatred are their base mandate.
5 years ago
Where do they think they’ll win against deep staters Gore, Kerry etc? In France?
5 years ago
Did the Mox Services facility ever actually receive any weapons grade Pu? I wonder if these companies were created just to facilitate islamic bribery of US politicos?
5 years ago
There is a picture at the Doerr’s home of EVERY major tech company leader and Barack Obama and Valarie Jarrett – all cheersing right before the election. Wonder what they were colluding on?. ????
5 years ago
So Al Gore, John Kerry, and Harry Reid effectively sucked up millions in a scheme that cost America billions …
Will justice ever be done?
5 years ago
Reply to
Dan Knight
Oh yes, and their justice will be eternal as determined by the real Supreme Judge,!! I would rather see them change their ways than spend an eternity in hell fire, but God has given them the freedom of “Choice”, so it really is up to them to determine where they will spend eternity. (And that is a loooooooong sentence).
Rev. Roy…….<><
5 years ago
Reply to
Achmed Mohandjob
No. I’ll expect justice in this case when h3ll freezes over. 😉
Have a great weekend!
5 years ago
And that folks is how politicians become millionaires.
5 years ago
Reply to
usn
‘ … how politicians become millionaires.” Better to substitute the “m” with a “b”, as in “billionaires”.
5 years ago
With a press that is as committed to their agenda as they are, any corruption or shenanigans by any Leftist group will be overlooked, especially if it empowers or enriches the Left… meanwhile they will continue reporting fake news… fake news that they get better and better at creating (I seem to remember a scene in Total Recall where they made fake news). It may come to a point in the future where they can produce a video featuring a conservative politician with some bimbo in what amounts to a porn movie… only that politician won’t actually be in it but that will hurt that politician.
Unless those in the media (and education and in public office) have a transformed heart to be and act in a moral/ethical way, we’ll be in a world of hurt… we’re kind of already in a world of hurt with the Democrat’s endless seditious acts… and it’s only going to get worse.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. John Adams
It seems that John Adams was right… our nation is falling apart because we have thrown out God and are now dismantling our Judeo-Christian foundation. With an atheistic world view, being the product of time plus matter plus chance, there is neither good nor evil, moral nor immoral… as Dawkins says, we just dance to the tune of our DNA… in that world, all it takes for someone to do whatever they want is to justify their actions as a “moral good” even though there is no basis for morality. And that is what we are seeing primarily from the Left but there are many on the Right who also don’t have a moral foundation… including many posers who quote scriptures but their “fruit” betrays their fake Christianity.
5 years ago
Reply to
created4el
I think you have hit on the core problem, but I’m afraid the ppl. are doing what seems right in their own minds. We have no one to step up to the plate, like many of the prophets of old, & show us the errors of our ways. It speaks in the scriptures of the things to come before the end times. I think we are entering into those times. I wouldn’t be surprised if we aren’t on a course to Armageddon. Climate change is not anything compared to the troubles & trials spoken of in the last days before His second return to this earth. If anyone is trusting in our politicians to fix things wrong with our country, then I think you will come up empty handed on that day. Get acquainted with the One who can get you out of the grave, the One who can hide your soul, in the clefts of the Rock. Amen?
5 years ago
Reply to
hpinnc
Yep.. amen!
“Climate change is not anything compared to the troubles & trials spoken of…”
But what was spoken of was included flood and famine–two things that tend to follow extreme weather, or in today’s vernacular, climate change. So climate change is a sign of what’s to come and it will exacerbate the conditions because there will be famine or as Bernie loves so much, food lines.
Of course flood and famine aren’t the only signs of the end times. But it also says people won’t be able to buy or sell unless they have government approval (or rather the mark or sign of the beast) but we are already seeing that today or at least attempts at it. When Leftists attack pizza shops or cake makers or other Christian owned businesses because of their faith, then they are essentially starting the process of establishing what or who can do what business. And because Christians are labeled as intolerant, they can be treated in an intolerant manner unless they “repent” of their “sin”. And, there will come a time when Christians will have to choose… take the mark of the beast or face extreme hardship. In Islamic countries, taking the sign of the beast is renouncing one’s Christian faith. Those poor Coptics Christians chose to have their heads sliced off rather than renounce their faith. Only God knows what the end times’ mark will be but the signs of the end are crescendoing an obvious to anybody who knows recognizes them.
5 years ago
LOL! I knew they were criminals a long time ago.
5 years ago
TVA has been a Democratic boondoggle since the 30’s. I am not surprised that it continues to give on giving to the Commiecrats.
5 years ago
Reply to
John Acord
see “Fighting With My Family” on this site! Everything is available !! copy or click blog here: qualityseries007.blogspot.com
5 years ago
All three are parasites tho could taken lessons from Hilliary the witch of Benghazi; formerly the “nurse Rachet” 1st-Lady = as per the Secret Service.
They’re slime but she’s dark evil…
5 years ago
The evil love of money.
5 years ago
The reason they will not allow the wall to be built, aside from being on the payroll of the drug cartels, is that nobody will be able to skim millions off of the project through this convoluted process described above. The money would likely go from the government straight to the contractors, just like when Trump builds his hotels. No way to involve a bunch of shell corporations owned by politicians to siphon money every step of the way.
Believe me, it’s not just demorats. There are a lot of republicans involved in these big money schemes, also. That’s why they cal it the “swamp”. The swamp in truly bi-partisan.
5 years ago
I started looking this up. The French know what happened and realize that they are on the hook for billions if this goes to court. We need to contact our elected representatives to demand action!
5 years ago
The corruption in the Democrat Party is beyond belief ! As if President Trump hasn’t enough on his plate, WOW. PUT THE BUNCH INTO PRISON.
5 years ago
Harry Reid, John Kerry, Al Gore, John Doerr named in Areva’s $28B corruption case. Will the DOJ take this case up,NO. Will Barr do an invest,NO. Will any US attorney take this up,NO. The elite are not subject to any US laws. Those law are only for the little people
5 years ago
Uhhh, Statute if Limitations? Why has nothing been done prior to this? Perhaps because Dims are exempt from the same laws the rest of us must adhere to.
5 years ago
Reply to
Rodney
These crooks always has each others back. Kind of like they are “partners in crime”. Never partners catching any of these clowns & sending them off to prison. I really think it is crooked lawyers protecting each other. I don’t know why the Republicans can never bring any of them to justice. Trey Gowdy & Sen, Jordan have tried to but I think Trey just got disgusted & went back to SC. I can’t say that I blame him, but our country is in desperate need of a few good men & women, who love this country enough, [ like Mr Trump to stay & fight for it ] When the democrats get back in, I think they will finish giving the country away.
5 years ago
These three political tramps need to be jailed forever!
