Businessman charged in solar panel stimulus fraud

Remember the $862 billion stimulus and the green shoots that were supposed to revitalize our economy?

We're still waiting.

Much of that taxpayer cash went to dim-bulb green energy projects.

Here's a case from the News-Gazette about a Danville, Illinois firm that alleges outright fraud.

When money is thrown around in abandon, you'll find plenty of stories like this one.

Joseph Samuel Kozicki, the owner and chief executive officer of AA Solar, Inc., will be issued a summons to appear in federal court in Urbana at a later date, said U.S. attorney’s office spokeswoman Sharon Paul.

According to the indictment, Kozicki applied for and received a $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy in March 2010. The grant money was to go toward the purchase and installation of equipment for a manufacturing facility to make solar tracking systems at 1303 East Voorhees Street in Danville, the indictment stated.

The indictment alleges that AA Solar provided false documents to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity; submitted the same invoice on multiple occasions to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity; used some of the grant money for Kozicki's personal benefit; failed to pay the vendors when it received the federal money; and tried to avoid detection of Kozicki’s scheme by law enforcement.

The company failed to establish a production line for solar tracking systems — and sold very few of them — despite being provided more than $1.5 million in grant money, the indictment states.