All assets of GSF Capital and its senior manager, Javier Romero have been frozen by an Italian court over claims that Suntech and its chairman and CEO, Dr. Zhengrong Shi were victims of fraud. The court also appointed a manager to take control of the Fund, though Suntech did not provide further insight into how the affair happened.
“Our first priority is to protect the interests of our shareholders, and we are pleased that our litigation initiatives have been successful to date,” commented Dr. Zhengrong Shi. “The court-appointed Manager has already removed Mr. Romero from any management role in the Fund and is in the process of gaining control of the Fund's operating assets. The rest of the Fund's current management team is still in place and we look forward to continuing our working relationship with them in the future.”
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Suntech also provided an update on the condition of the PV power plants build by GSF using Suntech modules and financial securities. According to the company,
“Our initial due diligence indicates that the solar plants owned and operated by the Fund's operating companies are in good order,” added Dr. Shi. “Over the coming weeks we intend to work closely with the Manager to review all of the assets and confirm that the operations are in line with our initial expectations.”
GSF was said to have ownership and operational control of approximately 142MW of completed solar plants in Italy. In total 141MW were connected to the grid and generating revenue via wholesale distribution agreements.
Suntech also noted that approximately 74MW of the total connected plants were receiving payments under the Italian feed-in-tariff program, and that the remainder of the plants were expected to be accepted into the feed-in-tariff program within the next few months.
Class-action law suits have already been announced against Suntech in the US over its claims of fraud. Suntech has not yet made a public announcement about these actions.