EnergyDOE seizes $21 million from Fisker after company fails to make monthly payment on loan

The administration seized $21 million from auto company Fisker Automotive, less than a month after the automaker laid off three quarters of its employees due to financial and production problems.

The Washington Post reports  that the Department of Energy(DOE) released a statement on Monday, saying it had recovered $21 million from the company’s reserve account earlier this month. The department is still waiting  for a repayment by the company of a loan given to Fisker in 2009.

A DOE spokesman said  a payment on the loan was due on Monday, but was not made. The missed payment and the company’s financial woes increased the belief among analysts that the company will eventually file for bankruptcy as soon as this week.

Fisker,  based in Anaheim, California, was awarded a $192 million loan as part of a program started by the Obama administration to boost electric cars and other alternative-fuel vehicles. Fisker used its assets as collateral for the loan.

Aoife McCarthy, a spokeswoman for the DOE, said the seizure was appropriate and noted that precautions were written into the loan agreement. The seizure, combined with the 2011 action to freeze the loan, has protected most of the original loan commitment.

“While this is a hard time for the company’s employees and investors, our overall portfolio of more than 30 projects continues to perform well and more than 90 percent of the $10 billion loan loss reserves Congress established remains intact,” McCarthy told the  Post.

The DOE was criticized for failing to protect taxpayers from a $529 million loan to the company Solyndra, a solar panel company, which went bankrupt in 2011 and laid off 1,100 employees.

Fisker was given $192 million in federal loans, but several problems led U.S. officials to freeze the cash in 2011.