A 2017 wildfire survivor sought to persuade PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy judge on Tuesday to make a key attorney in the case provide a better disclosure about his ties to Wall Street financiers.
San Antonio lawyer Mikal Watts, who represents thousands of fire victims, has admitted that two financial firms connected to the PG&E bankruptcy also had stakes in a $100 million loan he took out for his law practice. Watts told his clients about the issue at town halls in December, but Will Abrams, who lost his Santa Rosa home in the 2017 Tubbs Fire, has pushed for more.
Abrams wants tens of thousands of fire victims to receive a written disclosure about the financial issues raised by Watts to provide them with enough information to vote — or change their vote — on PG&E’s plan to exit bankruptcy. A 2018 Camp Fire survivor sided with Abrams in court through her attorneys.
The efforts threaten to greatly complicate the high-stakes voting on PG&E’s bankruptcy plan that is supposed to conclude on Friday. PG&E is also trying to resolve the whole case by June 30, its state-mandated deadline to access what is essentially a new form of corporate wildfire insurance.