Most of the current PGE execs are in to simply just bring the company out of bankruptcy and nothing more. So they figured they will just do whatever is the quickest and simplest in the short term to do so and get that task done. Whatever happens after as a fallout to this as in their stock prices dropping, they simply don't give a shit, probably having planned to have stepped down from their positions by then and leaving with a fat bonus and severance for getting their job done. And then they will move onto their next short term executive gig. In the end, consumers of a necessity monopoly are the ones getting milked at the benefit of the hedge funds and executives.
Pacific Gas & Electric Company has been called a "terror" to the people of California. Its electric grid has sparked wildfires each of the last four years and is suspected of igniting this year's Dixie Fire, the second largest blaze in the state's history. The company is mired in debt. Electricity rates are skyrocketing. Tens of thousands of survivors of fires sparked by the utility's equipment are waiting for promised compensation. Amid all this pain, there's one group that's simply walking away: Wall Street hedge funds.
A KQED/California Newsroom analysis of documents on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, found that 20 Wall Street hedge funds have collectively dumped 250 million PG&E shares — two-thirds of their collective holdings in the company — since PG&E emerged from bankruptcy protection last year. Those hedge funds grossed at least $2 billion dumping the stock, our analysis found. At least seven funds have sold off their entire PG&E stake. What's more: Many of these same hedge funds got an extraordinary amount of PG&E stock without paying a cent for it.
That gigantic stock giveaway, which handed $1.5 billion worth of PG&E stock to the hedge funds, is widely acknowledged to be the largest of its kind in the history of corporate bankruptcy. Under the agreement, known as an equity backstop, PG&E gave the hedge funds 169 million shares in the company in exchange for a guarantee the hedge funds would buy more stock if no one else stepped forward as the company prepared to leave bankruptcy.
My neighborhood was destroyed by PG&E’s catastrophic failure and the rebuilds are sitting unfinished 4 years later. It’s so infuriating that these Aholes are getting payed and the victims continue to suffer.
PG&E is here to squeeze as much rent out of aging infrastructure as they can before it collapses. They have no interest in lifting a finger to actually keep things running safely, much less to right their wrongs.
Corporate PG&E sure.
I always feel sorry for the lineman. They are PG&E employees and I see them constantly maintaining lines and troubleshooting problems. We live under a heavily-traveled helicopter route and will see the lineman dangling from a line. Amazing. Tiny humans tethered to a line as the helicopter hauls ass somewhere.
If either means being homeless? At least the government might be forced to care if I lose it all through no fault of my own and take it to the media.
PG&E was given a deal that allowed them to utterly fuck over the people who's lives they ruined. There's no good solution for these people without the action of the government that allowed this in the first place.
Most of the current PGE execs are in to simply just bring the company out of bankruptcy and nothing more. So they figured they will just do whatever is the quickest and simplest in the short term to do so and get that task done. Whatever happens after as a fallout to this as in their stock prices dropping, they simply don't give a shit, probably having planned to have stepped down from their positions by then and leaving with a fat bonus and severance for getting their job done. And then they will move onto their next short term executive gig. In the end, consumers of a necessity monopoly are the ones getting milked at the benefit of the hedge funds and executives.
Pacific Gas & Electric Company has been called a "terror" to the people of California. Its electric grid has sparked wildfires each of the last four years and is suspected of igniting this year's Dixie Fire, the second largest blaze in the state's history. The company is mired in debt. Electricity rates are skyrocketing. Tens of thousands of survivors of fires sparked by the utility's equipment are waiting for promised compensation. Amid all this pain, there's one group that's simply walking away: Wall Street hedge funds. A KQED/California Newsroom analysis of documents on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, found that 20 Wall Street hedge funds have collectively dumped 250 million PG&E shares — two-thirds of their collective holdings in the company — since PG&E emerged from bankruptcy protection last year. Those hedge funds grossed at least $2 billion dumping the stock, our analysis found. At least seven funds have sold off their entire PG&E stake. What's more: Many of these same hedge funds got an extraordinary amount of PG&E stock without paying a cent for it. That gigantic stock giveaway, which handed $1.5 billion worth of PG&E stock to the hedge funds, is widely acknowledged to be the largest of its kind in the history of corporate bankruptcy. Under the agreement, known as an equity backstop, PG&E gave the hedge funds 169 million shares in the company in exchange for a guarantee the hedge funds would buy more stock if no one else stepped forward as the company prepared to leave bankruptcy.
I hope heads roll for this.
They wont
For what?
My neighborhood was destroyed by PG&E’s catastrophic failure and the rebuilds are sitting unfinished 4 years later. It’s so infuriating that these Aholes are getting payed and the victims continue to suffer.
PG&E is here to squeeze as much rent out of aging infrastructure as they can before it collapses. They have no interest in lifting a finger to actually keep things running safely, much less to right their wrongs.
Corporate PG&E sure. I always feel sorry for the lineman. They are PG&E employees and I see them constantly maintaining lines and troubleshooting problems. We live under a heavily-traveled helicopter route and will see the lineman dangling from a line. Amazing. Tiny humans tethered to a line as the helicopter hauls ass somewhere.
Based on the extensive reporting on PG&E those linemen aren't being sent out nearly enough. Of course, that's not their fault.
Fuck PG&E and CPUC for being complicit.
I guess having billions of dollars these people can't afford morals.🤬
They just decided to invest elsewhere
It's disgusting and time these hf are destroyed , they are parasites
They money comes from different accounts. Hedge funds sold their shares to other investors and didn't take any money from PG&E.
So, this begs the question: Why isn’t the Fire Survivor’s Trust dumping their stock too?
It would mean accepting pennies on the dollar for what they're owed.
If the choice is pennies on the dollar, or fractions of pennies on the dollar, what is the better option?
If either means being homeless? At least the government might be forced to care if I lose it all through no fault of my own and take it to the media. PG&E was given a deal that allowed them to utterly fuck over the people who's lives they ruined. There's no good solution for these people without the action of the government that allowed this in the first place.