The Center for Public Integrity

Time and again, the government handed breaks to Solyndra Inc., an upstart California solar panel firm backed by a major supporter of the president.

And, time and again, benefits flowed from Washington despite warning signs that the government’s $535 million investment was a risky bet, at best.

The bill for that risk is yet to fully come due, as a criminal investigation expands into whether the company misled the government about its financial health in securing its half billion dollar reward, and in landing a favorable loan refinancing earlier this year.

At the least, taxpayers will lose a chunk of their investment in bankruptcy proceedings. More than 1,100 Solyndra workers already have faced consequences; when the company collapsed Aug. 31, they were fired on the spot.

A deeper political storm has now formed and shows signs of intensifying. The president is facing broadsides about Solyndra from the GOP, criticism sure to escalate as the 2012 election nears. Obama touted the company in a visit to its plant last year, two months after Solyndra’s own auditors raised striking questions about the company’s viability. Wednesday, a House panel investigating the loan is summoning witnesses, and Democrats have joined Republicans in asking questions.

A politically connected solar company that pocketed a half billion dollar government loan, only to shutter its doors, fire workers and file for bankruptcy, secured an interest rate lower than other green energy projects, iWatch News and ABC News found -- one in a string of benefits the Obama administration doled out in bankrolling the project.

Now, the government’s agreement with the company compels taxpayers to take a back seat to a venture fund associated with a key Obama fundraiser in trying to collect on the debt. Investors who put in $75 million would be repaid first; some $150 million of the government's $535 million would be next in line, according to the Energy Department's agreement with the company.

The $535 million loan to Solyndra Inc., issued by the Treasury Department's Federal Financing Bank as part of the Obama administration’s stimulus to create jobs and spur development of green energy, included a quarterly interest rate of 1.025 percent, the government bank reported in July. Of 18 Energy Department stimulus loans cited in the bank’s report, Solyndra’s rate was lowest. Eight other Energy Department projects, each also backed by the Federal Financing Bank, came with rates three or four times higher, the report shows.

President Obama's alternative energy darlilng, Solyndra, goes bankrupt. Taxpayers could get stuck with a bill for $535 million in loan guarantees. See the segment below on Good Morning America.

House investigators say they have uncovered evidence that White House officials became personally involved in an energy department review of a hot-button $535 million loan guarantee to the now-failed California solar company Solyndra.

The revelation surfaced in a letter House Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) sent to the White House Thursday night, saying he planned to accelerate efforts to understand an investment deal that may have left taxpayers out half a billion dollars.

"How did this company, without maybe the best economic plan, all of a sudden get to the head of the line?" Upton told ABC News in an interview this week. "We want to know who made this decision...and we're not going to stop until we get those answers."

Thursday's letter, which calls on the White House to turn over correspondence between administration officials, Solyndra and its investors, presents the most pointed suggestion that the White House had direct involvement in the financing.

"We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra's application and communicated with [Energy Department] and Office of Management and Budget officials during the course of their review,"  the letter states.

White House officials have said in interviews that they did not intervene in the Solyndra deal or others benefiting companies backed by supporters of the president. Yet the administration, from Obama to his Energy Department, has very publicly praised the loan guarantee.

In 2009, the Obama administration hailed the Solyndra loan as the first in a series of federal infusions for "green energy" firms that held the potential to clean up the environment and create jobs. But earlier this week, Solyndra abruptly closed its doors, announced it would file for bankruptcy and laid off more than 1,100 workers.

Rick Perry’s GOP presidential campaign has rapidly assembled an impressive roster of bundlers who have each signed up to bring in sums ranging from $50,000 to $500,000.

Two veteran fundraisers for the Perry campaign, in interviews with iWatch News, put the number of recruited bundlers at more than 400 and as high as 1,000. A third said the number was “multiples” of President Obama’s bundlers.

The Obama campaign listed 271 bundlers who had raised $50,000 or more at the end of June, accounting for about 40 percent of the $86 million that the campaign collected jointly with the Democratic National Committee.

The Perry campaign appears to have made huge strides, considering it is less than a month old.

“The Perry campaign is off to a fast start on the finance side,” Mississippian Henry Barbour, who has pledged to raise $500,000, told iWatch News. At this early stage, Barbour added, it looks like the campaign “will be able to perform at a similar level, if not exceed, what Bush did in 2000 and McCain did in 2008. It’s impressive.”

Tuesday night in Dallas, at the chic Fairmont Hotel, Perry’s fundraising firepower will be out in force. An A-list of Texas donors and money rustlers have signed up as Dallas hosts including a few billionaires or near billionaires like: buyout mogul Harold Simmons, Ross Perot Jr. of the eponymous Perot Group and leveraged buyout executive Tom Hicks.

The Dallas event is one of several slated for this week in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. On Monday, two fundraisers were held in Oklahoma including one in Oklahoma City where the legendary Sooner football coach Barry Switzer was a host.

This money marathon is part of the campaign’s drive to quickly raise $10 million, mostly out of the Lone Star state, say Perry fundraisers. To achieve that goal the bundlers will be crucial since individual donations are limited to $2,500 per election.