(17). How safe is your neighborhood? This is different from a class action lawsuit. In his letter to victims, Trotter recounted the creation of the trust and its recent history. The trust, which he took over two years ago, was funded with $13.5 billion, half in cash and half in the PG&E common stock. REUTERS/David Swanson. Furthermore, Gov. When recently challenged by a letter from the Butte County Board of Supervisor's who presented legitimate questions about the pace and process of the Trust's claims processing, the thin-skinned Trustee refused to respond to the Supervisors and called them "you people" "politicians" with "uninformed, slanderous conclusions". In that rubble Internicola says he found the only item that survived, a ring his father gave him. Every day we are forced to hold the stock, leads to more costs and more taken away from victims, for sure, said Will Abrams, who lost his home in the 2017 Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. A 15% increase was tacked on to the 30% pro-rata payments most claimants have already seen, meaning fire victims should have received 45% of their full approved claim. Read the responses, , the Trust sent letters in support of H.R. The PGE Fire Victim Trust was created by Judge Dennis Montali to manage the adjudication and distribution of the wildfire victims' $13.5 billion settlement from PGE that was awarded to the victims' by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Legislators have presented a bipartisan bill that would exempt federal taxes on the money survivors get from the Wildfire Victim Trust Fund. Were making every effort to keep Fire Victims and their attorneys apprised of our progress each step of the way. PG&E was forced into bankruptcy after its equipment sparked the Camp Fire that killed at least 85 people and nearly wiped out the Northern California town of Paradise. "All legislation that is not passed and signed does lapse as of January 2nd so we would put that bill right out on January 3rd as soon as the swearing in is over with and get going again because our constituents have waited long enough," said LaMalfa. Newsom correct the inequities in the PGE wildfire victims' settlement awards that are being adjudicated by the PGE Fire Victim Trust and fully compensate the victims of the 2015, 2017 and 2018 Northern California wildfires as required by California's "inverse condemnation" law which says "if you broke it, you fix it" (which applies to public utilities) and, more importantly, by doing what's morally right. Opinions expressed are those of the author. No victims are on the committee. Many, many thanks., The disaster recovery resources you provided helped many individuals and families., Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of your outstanding contributions to the Third Supervisorial District and the County of San Diego., (United Policyholders) provided helpful insights into the state of the current insurance market for earthquake, fire and flood coverage, and the critical rile insurance plays in the ability of our communities recover from such catastrophic events. and Claims Administrator Cathy Yanni. The initial pro rata payment will be 30% of the total approved and accepted claim amount. On September 29th, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill which will make PG&E wildfire victims' settlement payments state tax-free, but as of right now fire victims must still pay federal taxes on the award money. Your attorney will prepare the necessary information about your case and file a proof of claim on your behalf in the PG&E bankruptcy court. If he or Ms. Yanni (his replacement appointed solely by Trustee Trotter) sells the remaining 377 million of the victims shares for the same loss, victims stand to lose over $1.1 billion of their $13.5 billion settlement, perhaps much more. These preliminary payments, which have totaled $79 million to date, will continue to be made on an ongoing basis. I have tried to work cooperatively with the Trustee while pressing for payments to be expedited with greater transparency and accountability, he said in the statement to this newspaper. He said in his letter that the trust still owns 377 million shares of the utilitys stock. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2022/05/06/666497.htm, (3) Allyn, J. The Trust issues Determination Notices daily and issues payments twice a month. Forgot Password? Please Wait This Portal is the secure website to exchange information between a Fire Victim or a Fire Victims law firm and the Administrators of the Fire Victim Trust. Only persons authorized by the Claims Administrator and the Claims Processor may use this Portal. Thats between $800 and $1,250 per hour. At the time of that delivery, the stock was trading at approximately $9 per share, he wrote. Gov. Our experienced mass tort attorneys provide consultations at no cost and with no obligation. The legislation would exempt wildfire payouts from income taxes and would allow attorney fees and court costs to be deducted from taxes, right now they are not. He said that they ended up hiring 500 people along with a processing firm BrownGreer that was in charge of receiving, reviewing, and valuing the claims. At the closing of the PG&E bankruptcy trial in July 2020, Judge Dennis Montali (the judge and only judge presiding over the PG&E bankruptcy proceeding) proclaimed and I paraphrase and quote him: This PG&E $13.5 billion dollar wildfire victim settlement will allow for victims of the wildfires to be compensated for their losses quickly and fairly. That finally sounded good to the 68,870 families who lost homes and personal property in 2015, 2017, and 2018 Northern California wildfires for which PG&E was accused of and admitted to in court their negligence for our losses and was now officially named responsible for our losses. (8), In fact, the funds earmarked for wildfire disaster victims have first, quickly and more than fairly gone to the unwieldy and ineffectively operated PG&E Fire Victim Trust bureaucracy, (with excessive fees paid to the Trust managers and consultants); to the insurance companies that received full reimbursement of their homeowner insurance subrogation claim payments, and; complete payouts and large stock bonuses to the Hedge Funds for accepting the bad (half-stock) deal they all agreed to offer to the wildfire victims. A. Newsom approved Montalis bankruptcy plan for PGE. Fire Victims may accept this initial determination or may request additional review and submit supplemental claim materials as part of the Reconsideration and Appeals processes. opt-out claim, and issuance 90% of all Determination Notices. He was born in Chico and attended Butte and Chico State. If you're on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live, Videos show parade of storms toppling trees across SF Bay Area, The warning signs your tree may fall during next storm, 18 killed in helicopter crash near Kyiv, Ukraine, including children. The IRS letter echoed articles you have California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, Christopher and Urmila - 2017 Tubbs Fire Victims, FEMA can help California communities recover under the Stafford Act, Home insurance availability, affordability AND quality is shrinking: States and the Feds must coordinate and take action to protect homeownership in the US. VIDEO: PG&E stock sale may mean more cash for California wildfire victims. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://www.kqed.org/news/11891626/hedge-funds-cash-out-billions-in-pge-stock-fire-survivors-suffer-and-wait, (2) Trust Distributed $1.69B to PG&E California Fire Victims in 2021. All Rights Reserved. However, we encourage all potential claimants to discuss their case with an attorney in a timely manner to begin the process. John K. Trotter (ret.) Compensating victims will be a recurring challenge; giving them a volatile asset prone to falling in value turns out to be a poor solution. This petition focuses on the victims of the Northern California wildfires between 2015 and 2018, including all wildfires in this period for which PGE was held legally responsible for victims losses in their 2019 U.S. Bankruptcy filing and proceedings and codified in their exit from their bankruptcy process, resulting in the creation of the PGE Fire Victim Trust. "It was really disappointing that many members of Congress signed a letter asking for clarification and they took five months fooling around getting back to us," said LaMalfa. In addition to the program statistics below, you can access Trust information using the Information and FAQs menu tabs above. On December The attorneys representing wildfire claimants will work with financial experts to arrive at an aggregate estimation of claims, i.e., the total liability PG&E faces for all wildfire damages. 16. 10/31/22 . Your attorney will continue to represent you throughout the remainder of the proceedings until your case is resolved. That voicemail was widely criticized by local politicians and inspired another letter from the board. And Trustee Trotter, in his not-so-infinite wisdom, has already sold 100 million shares of the victims PGE stock at $12.04 per share for a $212 million loss. They need help now: In Gold Country, PG&E fire victims have waited 6 years for payment. "You know if the state can get it done, why can't the federal government," said LaMalfa. 7305 to amend IRS Code of 1986 for certain fire survivors' claimants. And the Hedge Fund investors have been paid in full over nine months ago with huge stock incentives in PG&E stock bonuses for accepting the Fire Victim Trusts deal, and as soon as they received the PG&E stock at full market price and their stock bonuses for accepting the victims deal, they sold all their PG&E stock with hundreds of millions dollars in profits, paid from the $55 billion PGE bankruptcy settlement. 0 And, again, our deal was crafted by these players such that victims would receive a $13.5 billion dollar settlement, but half of that amount (i.e., $6.75 billion) was to be paid to the victims in PG&E stock, only to find out that when PG&E exited bankruptcy the victims stock was already over $1.5 billion underwater. To download an extensive set of FAQs, click here. Large and damaging wildfires were started by PGEs negligence that began with the 2015 Lake County wildfire and continued with the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 wildfires that scorched Northern California, destroying the homes and property of 68,870 families and businesses. Congressman LaMalfa along with Congressman Mike Thompson introduced legislation that would exempt fire victims receiving compensation from the Fire Victim Trust from having to pay federal income tax on their settlements. Distributing a portion of the bankruptcy settlement funds before claims could be fully evaluated was an unprecedented move, but a necessary one given the extreme hardship facing many individuals whose losses from the wildfires have been compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic and by the 2020 wildfires in Northern California. Newsom put his imprimatur on this deal and soon thereafter gave PG&E a safety regulation pass so they could exit the bankruptcy process and continue to operate with business as usual, that is, with little ongoing responsibility for making major wildfire mitigation efforts to their electric service lines and a backstop of California tax payers funds to payoff their next victims at 100% of their losses. This petition requests that Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali and is being implemented. {-k3}- &l=g`ns u' We are looking for a Governor to vote for that can help us get "fair" compensation as promised by PGE bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali. That is stinging traders who bet the central bank would be forced to widen a 10-year government bonds trading band again, having expanded it to 0.50% from 0.25% in December under market pressure. Any potential claimants who have not yet hired an attorney should be aware that the bankruptcy court will announce a bar date, after which time no further claims may be included in the proceeding or compensated. Cook, 70, and his family are scraping by, living in a rented home 100 miles (161 kilometers) away in Davis, where he shares a three-bedroom rental with his 68-year-old wife, Leslie, their four adult children and three grandchildren. Governor Haruhiko Kurodas battle with market forces has entered a new phase. While you may submit a claim on your own, we highly recommend consulting an attorney before submitting a claim form and electing to represent yourself in a complex bankruptcy matter. 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