MIAMI.- Eric Silagy, former executive manager of Florida Power and Light (FPL), earned $5.4 million from the sale of shares after hiding his company’s involvement in a political scandal, according to a group of investors allegedly affected when the electricity company’s violations were uncovered.
The lawsuit was filed in the Southern Federal District of Florida by people who purchased shares of FPL’s parent company, NextEra Energy, between December 2, 2021, the day Silagy made the sale of its shares, and January 30. 2023, shortly after NextEra announced the departure of the company executive.
The lawsuit, directed against Silagy, FPL, NextEra Energy and some public executives, focuses on the timing of the stock sale, and the unusual size of the sales package. He emphasizes that it was a day before the Orlando Sentinel broke the murky story showing that FPL had donated more than $10 million to groups that finance campaigns with dark money controlled by Matrix LLC consultants.
According to the scandal, Matrix consultants devised a controversial plan to influence the 2020 elections by creating independent “ghost political candidates” to divide the vote that favored those candidates who were “detrimental” to the electricity company’s plans.
The connections between Florida’s largest electricity company and the consultants began to become known in mid-2021, when Atlanta-based consulting firm Matrix LLC sued former consultants, accusing them of conspiring with a client to defraud the company of fees, Sentinel said.
The company involved was not identified at the time, but was said to be a publicly traded company based in Juno Beach. Sentinel noted that Securities and Exchange Commission records show that NextExtra Energy was the only publicly traded company based in the small Palm Beach County city.
On September 2, 2021, a month after the civil lawsuit was filed against the Matrix consultants involved in the political scandal, Silagy reported that it planned to sell 62,480 shares of NextEra on December 1. In an operation in which he won 5.4 million dollars.
It was not until early 2023, when Silagy left FPL, that NextEra acknowledged political scandals and alleged violations of federal campaign laws to the Federal Election Commission.
Following that recognition, NextEra’s stock price plummeted 8.7%, decreasing investors’ value by $14 billion, according to the lawsuit.
Spokespeople for the defendants, cited by Sentinel, claim that Silagy sold the shares following the rules and protocols of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
For their part, the plaintiffs allege they suffered damages by purchasing NextEra shares “following defendants’ false statements covering up FPL’s role in the political scandal.”
They claim that the defendants violated provisions of the Federal Exchange Act that prohibit misleading misrepresentations and omissions in connection with the purchase or sale of securities.
Last January, when reporting on Silagy’s retirement after a decade at the head of FPL, DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS explained that his company was being left under public scrutiny, due to the leak of several documents that indicated that FPL and the consulting firm Matrix LLC could be behind the persecution of politicians and journalists uncomfortable with the interests of the energy company.
cmenendez@diariolasaméricas.com
@menendezpryce
