By Gary Grado | Arizona Capitol Times
A federal judge in Phoenix on Tuesday certified a class action lawsuit alleging securities fraud against First Solar and its executives, a heavily subsidized company that has received tens of millions of dollars in incentives from the state for a Mesa plant that has just been sold.
Steve Krum, a company spokesman, said First Solar, based in Tempe, entered into a agreement last week to sell the plant to a company he declined to name. Krum said the company will do “clean high-tech manufacturing” in the plant.
As of March 2011, the company received $51.5 million in state, federal and local incentives for the first phase of the warehouse.
Judge David Campbell of U.S. District Court in Phoenix certified the class as all investors who acquired stock between April 30, 2008, and February 28, 2012. Campbell said there is evidence the class is about 1,300 investors and more than 2.9 billion shares were traded.
Related: First Solar (FSLR) to Sell Mesa Facility, Net Proceeds $100M
Also: Solana starts generating solar power for APS
If you’d like to discuss energy issues, contact Court Rich, director of Rose Law Group’s Renewable Energy Department at crich@roselawgroup.com
