U.S. taxpayers think they lost around $535 million in the Solyndra federal loan guarantee by the Department of Energy. But, in fact, the loss could be as high as $849 million, more than 50 percent higher. After Solyndra went bankrupt in August of 2011, the U.S. department of Energy approved a deal to attract more private investment to the company. Part of the deal was that the private creditors could write-off more than $350 million in taxes, making the total loss to American taxpayers for Solyndra as much as $849 million. Further, one of these private creditors is a company owned by a major donor to President Obama.
