The FBI has joined state investigators probing the award of $12 million in state tax credits to SolarCity Corp. and its investors last year after the company completed six solar arrays for the Oregon University System.
The Oregon Department of Justice launched criminal and civil investigations last month into the solar projects after The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that the projects should not have been eligible for state tax credits. The news organization found that project backers missed a key state deadline for beginning construction on the arrays, but submitted phony and misleading documents to the Oregon Department of Energy to mask that fact and maintain their eligibility for the subsidies.
A team of four DOJ lawyers and special agents visited the Energy Department on April 1. They were accompanied by an agent from the FBI's white collar crime squad in Portland. Sources at the Department of Energy say the team was there to review documents related to the university solar projects.
The agent and an FBI spokeswoman declined Friday to comment on the FBI's interest in the case or whether it had launched a separate investigation.
SolarCity says it had no knowledge of the misleading submissions. It says those documents were the responsibility of the Oregon University System and a Seattle-based renewable energy consultant that it hired to coordinate the projects.
- Ted Sickinger
tsickinger@oregonian.com
503-913-4211; @tedsickinger