According to the Complaint, NextEra Energy, Inc. is one of the largest power and utility holding companies in North America. NEE’s primary subsidiary is Florida Power and Light Co. (“FPL”), the largest vertically integrated regulated utility in Florida.
Beginning in December 2021, media outlets, including the Orlando Sentinel and Miami Herald, began reporting that FPL and political consulting firm, Matrix LLC had potentially violated state and federal campaign finance laws by using a network of nonprofits to steer funding to spoiler “ghost candidates” to derail the campaign efforts of unfriendly legislators seeking reelection to Florida state offices in 2020. Later reports alleged that FPL also spied on journalists following unsupportive reporting, improperly courted public officials with job offers while bidding to privatize certain public utilities, and FPL executives knowingly approved of Matrix’s dirty tricks to benefit the Company.
For more than a year, FPL denied these allegations, while executives and top corporate officers at NextEra falsely claimed that the alleged political misconduct orchestrated by FPL did not expose the Company to any meaningful legal or reputational risk based on an internal investigation. NextEra later acknowledged the opposite when FPL's President and CEO abruptly resigned, and the Company included a new risk disclosure in its SEC filings explicitly addressing the issue on January 25, 2023.
The Complaint alleges that during the Class Period, Defendants made or caused to be made a series of materially false and/or misleading statements about NEE’s business, prospects, and operations, and that these material misstatements and/or omissions created an unrealistically positive assessment of NEE and its business, operations, and prospects, thus causing the price of the Company’s securities to be artificially inflated at all relevant times, and when disclosed, negatively affected the value of the Company shares.
On June 5, 2023, the Court issued an Order dismissing the case without prejudice following a sua sponte review of the record. Plaintiff filed an amended Complaint on June 8.
The Court issued an Order appointing Lead Plaintiff and Counsel on October 26, 2023. Lead Plaintiff filed a second amended Complaint on December 1.
