Sunrun, leader del fotovoltaico. Bilanci truccati prima della quotazione.

Giuseppe Sandro Mela.

2017-05-23.

 

 

«Former managers with solar panel giant Sunrun say they took part in manipulating troves of sales data before the company went public in 2015.»

Adesso sta indagando la Sec, ossia l’equivalente della Consob italiana.

Jay Clayton ne è il chairman, nominato da Mr Trump il 20 gennaio e confermato al Senato il 2 maggio. Unico repubblicano contro due democratici. Due posti ancora vacanti.

Nessun dubbio che il giudizio sia politico. La Sunrun era il tempio massimo dei liberals democratici. Anche se le prove sono schiaccianti e corredate da piena confessione, ci sarà sicuramente qualcuno di buon cuore che “interpreterà” le leggi.

Come San Francesco dava da mangiare ai miseri, con ben maggiore larghezza la Sunrun ha mantenuto legioni e legioni di liberals democratici, sui strenui sostenitori. Usando fondi pubblici, si intende.

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«Former managers with solar panel giant Sunrun say they took part in manipulating troves of sales data before the company went public in 2015.»

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«The former managers say superiors told them to wait on reporting data showing hundreds of customers who canceled contracts during a roughly five-month period before the initial public offering.»

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«Solar companies usually give homeowners several days to rethink the contract before solar panels are installed in their homes.»

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«Delaying the data would make the company’s financial standing look like a Potemkin Village – a structure meant to mislead shareholders about the health of the company.»

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«“The big internal push was to cram as many sales as we could through the pipeline,” Darren Jennings, who says he was a Sunrun regional sales manager in Hawaii before the IPO told The Wall Street Journal earlier this month. “If those deals canceled, we would not report it.”»

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«He said employees in Hawaii didn’t process nearly 200 cancellations, a number representing about 40 percent of total orders in Hawaii between May 2015-October 2015. Three other managers claimed they also took part in the delays.»

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«The cancellation data influenced the number of Sunrun customers and the shear amount of “megawatts booked,” which describes the amount of energy production generated by home energy systems.»

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«Jennings and Stockdale’s claims comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues investigating whether Sunrun and competitor SolarCity have done enough to disclose to investors the number of customers who canceled contracts for solar energy systems.»

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Adesso sta indagando la Sec, Securities and Exchange Commission.

«The mission of the SEC is to protect investors; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and facilitate capital formation. The SEC strives to promote a market environment that is worthy of the public’s trust.»

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«The Securities and Exchange Commission has five Commissioners who are appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate. Their terms last five years and are staggered so that one Commissioner’s term ends on June 5 of each year. The Chairman and Commissioners may continue to serve approximately 18 months after terms expire if they are not replaced before then. To ensure that the Commission remains non-partisan, no more than three Commissioners may belong to the same political party. The President also designates one of the Commissioners as Chairman, the SEC’s top executive. There are currently two vacancies on the Commission.»

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«Jay Clayton, Chairman.

Jay Clayton was nominated to chair the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on January 20, 2017 by President Donald Trump and sworn in on May 4, 2017, following confirmation by the U.S. Senate on May 2, 2017.»

Nessuno invidia il compito di Mr Clayton. È l’unico repubblicano in un ente federale da lunghi, tristissimi anni, sotto il pieno controllo dei liberal democratici, che ne hanno fatto tutto ciò che volevano.

Aver falsificato i bilanci negli Stati Uniti è un reato punito con lunghe pene detentive.

Nota.

Nessuno si illuda: siamo solo agli inizi.

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→ WSJ. 2017-05-22. SEC Probes Solar Companies Over Disclosure of Customer Cancellations

Some customers say they canceled contracts after being strong-armed into solar-energy deals; hundreds of complaints to state attorneys general.

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Federal regulators are investigating whether solar-energy companies are masking how many customers they are losing, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining whether San Francisco-based Sunrun Inc. and Elon Musk’s San Mateo, Calif.-based SolarCity Corp. have adequately disclosed how many customers have canceled contracts after signing up for a home solar-energy system.

[Articolo riportato parzialmente causa il copyright]

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→ WSJ. 2017-05-22. Solar Company Sunrun Was Manipulating Sales Data, Say Former Managers

Employees say they were told to hold off reporting cancellations around the time of the company’s IPO .

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Former managers at one of the largest U.S. solar-energy companies say they manipulated a key sales metric around the time of the company’s August 2015 initial public offering.

The former managers of Sunrun Inc. say they were told by their superiors to hold off on internally reporting hundreds of customers who canceled their contracts during a roughly five-month period in the middle of 2015.

[Articolo riportato parzialmente causa il copyright]

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 → GTM. 2013-02-21. Sunrun Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Its Marketing

A California customer claims Sunrun is trying to “deceive consumers into leasing a system they otherwise would not have.”

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In January, a California man filed a class-action complaint against the solar services firm Sunrun, claiming the company engaged in deceptive marketing practices.

We recently came across the filing, which can be found here.

The suit alleges that Sunrun, one of the leading providers of solar leases and power purchase agreements, is making false claims about the projected rise in electricity prices.

The plaintiff, Shawn Reed, signed a contract with Sunrun in August of 2011 to lease a solar system. According to the filing, Reed “understood from Sunrun that increases in electricity prices would result in the cost advantage of the Sunrun system,” which influenced his decision.

As the document points out, Sunrun uses a number of broad projections about electricity prices in its online marketing materials. 

“You already pay a lot for electricity today. In the future, you’ll pay even more,” reads the site. “Nationwide, electricity rates have been increasing 6% per year over the last thirty years. When you go solar, you take control of your electricity costs and opt out of utility rate increases. You’ll save money with solar by locking in a lower rate for your electricity than you will pay for the next thirty years. Many Sunrun customers start saving money right away.”

Another part of Sunrun’s site reads: “Nationwide, average utility rates have been on the rise for the last 30 years. There’s no evidence that this trend will reverse anytime soon. Going solar today will help you lower your electricity costs and put money back into your pocket.

SolarCity, another leading company offering solar leases and power purchase agreements, also makes very similar claims on its website.

So are these deceptive? The lawsuit points to Public Utilities Commission charts showing a leveling of average retail electricity prices in Southern California Edison territory, where Reed lives. The chart also shows that average retail rates in Pacific Gas & Electric territory have dropped slightly since 2009. (Interestingly, it also shows that San Diego Gas & Electric Rates have fluctuated wildly, but climbed overall.)

Reed claims that he never would have leased the Sunrun system if he had known that rates wouldn’t have risen as claimed in the Sunrun marketing materials. The class action suit seeks to find:

“Whether Sunrun represented that increases in electricity prices would result in the cost advantage of the Sunrun system over time; Whether Sunrun knew of should have known that the promise of the system sure to result in cost advantage was false when made; Whether Sunrun should have disclosed that electricity prices may be leveling off or decreasing in the future; Whether the promise of a system sure to result in cost advantage was likely to deceive consumers into leasing a system they otherwise would not have; Whether the failure to disclose that electricity prices have been leveling off or decreasing in recent years was likely to deceive consumers into leasing a system they otherwise would not have.”

The legal document also cites articles from The Economist and Fortune about how shale gas has “transformed America’s energy outlook.”

So what does electricity pricing look like in the future?

According to the International Energy Agency, the national average retail price of electricity will rise from 11.87 cents in 2012 to 12.32 cents in 2014. 

“Rising costs of infrastructure upgrades continue to drive increases in residential electricity rates, although lower fuel prices in recent years have kept growth in retail rates relatively modest. After an increase of 1.3 percent during 2012, EIA expects retail residential electricity prices will grow by 1.7 percent in 2013 and by 2.0 percent in 2014,” reports the agency.

The EIA also reports that the average retail price of electricity in California actually increased from 14.77 cents in 2011 to 15.54 cents in 2012.

In November of 2012, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a 5 percent rate increase for Southern California Edison in order to improve reliability. The following month, Pacific Gas & Electric announced it would raise rates by 2.6 percent this year.

So rates are indeed rising; although not at the same historical 6 percent rate that Sunrun references on its website. But did Reed receive inaccurate or false information about electricity prices before signing the contract? It all depends on what Sunrun and the installation contractor told him. If the above data sets and combined broad marketing claims made by Sunrun on its website are everything the case rests on, it’s tough to see where the company intentionally deceived, as the suit claims.

However, a part of the case appears to be based on oral statements made to Reed by a Sunrun salesperson.

The remainder of the lawsuit focuses on what the company told Reed about ending his contract. According to Reed, a sales representative told him that he could terminate his contract without any obligation if he moved. According to the class action complaint, the Sunrun contract offered contradictory language on ending the contract. In “Terms and Termination” section, Sunrun says it will remove the panels at no cost at the end of the lease. But in the “Sunrun’s Remedies” section, the company says the customer must pay the remainder of the lease if the contract is terminated. Reed says those terms are “necessarily confusing to the average consumer and coupled with oral misrepresentation are likely to deceive.”

Perhaps this is why SolarCity, a Sunrun competitor, recently opened up its contract to the public. The company says it wants to “equip consumers with the information they need to comfortably adopt solar.”

Susan Wise, the Public Relations Manager for Sunrun, declined to comment. After multiple phone calls and emails, the lawyers for the case also declined to comment.

The complaint, issued in early January, was filed on behalf of anyone who entered into a contract with Sunrun before February 2012. It demands a jury trial in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County.

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→ Energy News Cyprus. 2017-05-22. Solar Company Sunrun Was Manipulating Sales Data, Say Former Managers

Former managers at one of the largest U.S. solar–energy companies say they manipulated a key sales metric around the time of the company’s August….

[Articolo riportato parzialmente causa il copyright]

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→ The Street. 2017-05-22. Former Sunrun Managers Admit to Manipulating Sales Data

Former managers at solar energy company Sunrun  (RUN) admitted to manipulating sales data, at the behest of their superiors, around the time of the company’s initial public offering in 2015. 

The managers said they were told to hold off on reporting hundreds of canceled contracts during a five month period in the middle of 2015. 

Sunrun, which is backed by venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital, is the largest publicly traded rooftop solar energy company with 1.5 million customers, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Sunrun shares are down about 20% since its debut two years ago. Shares remained unchanged in premarket trading Monday. 

Jim Cramer and the RealMoney team are on top of the volatile oil market and come with timely insights to help investors navigate commodity’s ups and downs. Here is Jim’s latest on what’s moving crude prices and how investors should play the market.

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→ Daily Caller. 2017-05-22. Major Solar Company Accused Of Manipulating Sales Data Before Initial Public Offering

Former managers with solar panel giant Sunrun say they took part in manipulating troves of sales data before the company went public in 2015.

The former managers say superiors told them to wait on reporting data showing hundreds of customers who canceled contracts during a roughly five-month period before the initial public offering. Solar companies usually give homeowners several days to rethink the contract before solar panels are installed in their homes.

Delaying the data would make the company’s financial standing look like a Potemkin Village – a structure meant to mislead shareholders about the health of the company.

“The big internal push was to cram as many sales as we could through the pipeline,” Darren Jennings, who says he was a Sunrun regional sales manager in Hawaii before the IPO told The Wall Street Journal earlier this month. “If those deals canceled, we would not report it.”

He said employees in Hawaii didn’t process nearly 200 cancellations, a number representing about 40 percent of total orders in Hawaii between May 2015-October 2015. Three other managers claimed they also took part in the delays.

Sunrun’s chief executive and co-founder Lynn Jurich said in a press statement that the company had “reviewed the digital audit trail in our systems” and “turned up no evidence that our sales employees changed cancellation dates in our systems to delay the reporting of cancellations.”

The cancellation data influenced the number of Sunrun customers and the shear amount of “megawatts booked,” which describes the amount of energy production generated by home energy systems.

Sunrun was under the gun to reach important internal sales numbers, according to Evan Stockdale, who told reporters he was a regional manager at the company’s home base in California. He said Sunrun held off on reporting the data because it was under the gun to meet important internal sales numbers.

“We were pushed for sales numbers,” he said. “Everybody was on pins and needles.”

Jennings and Stockdale’s claims comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues investigating whether Sunrun and competitor SolarCity have done enough to disclose to investors the number of customers who canceled contracts for solar energy systems.

SolarCity, for its part, has sought to tamp down concerns that might prop up as a result of the investigation. The company “has remained focused on reporting the quality of our installed assets, not pre-install cancellation rates,” a spokeswoman told reporters earlier this month. “Our growth projections have always been based on actual deployment.”

SolarCity has been accused of increasing mortgage defaults as well. The Silicon Valley company reached long-term lease agreements with homeowners before they defaulted on the mortgages, according to a report from The New York Times in February. There could be even more default cases, the report notes.

Mohammed Ahmed Gangat, a lawyer for the beleaguered company, argued in September 2016 that the company needed to file a document late to a New York court because it had been “inundated” with thousands of lawsuits across the country, all of which named SolarCity as a defendant in foreclosure actions.

Some solar panel customers believe companies are selling them a bill of goods.

Hundreds of solar panel customers, for instance, have complained to attorneys general in areas throughout the South that their utility bills have increased, not decreased as promised, according to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by watchdog group Campaign for Accountability.

Customers also complained solar panel companies threatened to sue them if they didn’t proceed with solar panel purchases. Still others say representatives threatened so-called mechanic’s lien on their homes — a measure used to force a homeowner to pay for a home-improvement project.