Quick facts about this settlement

Case Name: First Solar

Settlement Fund: $350,000,000

Deadline: 7/1/2020

Class Period: 4/30/2008 – 2/28/2012

The first complaint against First Solar, the solar panel manufacturing company, was filed on May 15, 2012. The typical securities class action takes about two and a half years to resolve, so the fact this one lasted nearly eight tells you that First Solar fought the case very hard. Indeed, they appealed to the Ninth Circuit not once but twice and even filed a petition to the Surpeme Court.

“As multi-billion-dollar fraud schemes go,” plaintiff attorneys wrote in their complaint, “Defendants’ was fairly simple… [Company executives] spent years convincing investors that First Solar had a winning formula for reducing manufacturing costs so rapidly and dramatically as to make solar power competitive with fossil fuels. They perpetuated their fraudulent self-portrayal by concealing and misrepresenting the nature and extent of major manufacturing and design defects in their solar modules.”

Thanks to this alleged scheme, plaintiffs claim that “after the sun had set on the Class Period, Solar’s stock had fallen from over $310 to under $30.”

If you or your clients lost money in First Solar, Chicago Clearing can help. Don’t let the antique class period scare you. CCC has the experience and savvy to find and normalize trade data no matter how old or where it is sourced. We will even hunt it down for you.

This settlement is one of a dozen we added in March alone that collectively total nearly a billion dollars. Funds from financial class actions settlements will both be a great recovery opportunity and a reliable liquidity stream in 2020. Please call us today if you are interested in discussing this or any other class action.