Plug Power has already raked in$ 70 million from Biden administration
Investors are suing a hydrogen fuel company that received more than$ 70 million from the Biden administration and is currently negotiating a$ 1.6 billion federal loan. They claim the company made “false and misleading statements” about its business prospects.
Plug Power “overstated the nearby- term prospects of its gas production operations” in the United States and Europe, leading to “artificially inflated” share prices, according to the national lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of New York in March.
The problem makes the case that Plug Power’s economic struggles became obvious after its management warned it was facing financial difficulties and had run out of money this year following its earnings statement in November.
The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office is currently negotiating a$ 1.6 billion loan to help Plug Power expand its domestic hydrogen production facilities.
The legality of Plug Power is not unique among the financially disturbed businesses that have received DOE money. Investors sued Sunnova, a solar company that was approved for a$ 3 billion conditional DOE loan, last month, alleging the company withheld information about its alleged “predatory business practices against disadvantaged homeowners and communities.”
The DOE’s loan company has been working to rapid- record the$ 1.6 billion money authorization for Plug Power, the Free Beacon , reported , in January. Next month, Plug Power also , received ,$ 75 million in grants from the DOE to develop its New York manufacturing businesses.
Concerns about conflicts of interest in the DOE mortgage company, a subject that the district’s inspector general is presently looking into, may become even more acute as a result of the DOE money to Plug Power.
Previous clean energy tycoon Jigar Shah, the chairman of the DOE mortgage office, had a previous economic relationship with Plug Power, according to a report released in January.
Before joining the Biden administration, Shah loaned$ 100 million to Plug Power through Generate Capital, an investment firm that he founded. Potrivit to national disclosure documents, Shah sold his stock in Generate when he entered the state.
According to corporate disclosure filings, Plug Power paid back the$ 100 million that was paid to Generate at a 9 % interest rate in December when the company was negotiating with Shah’s office for the DOE funding. The hydrogen fuel business had already given investors a warning about its economic outlook when the repayment occurred three years earlier than expected.
Requests for comment were ignored by Plug Power and DOE.
