A year after PG&E Corp. funded a trust to compensate victims of California wildfires with company stock, most have yet to be paid, and the shares have fallen in value after the utility acknowledged it might have started this year’s worst fire, the Wall Street Journal reported. As part of its plan to exit bankruptcy last year, the San Francisco-based company agreed to use cash and stock to fund a $13.5 billion trust to compensate roughly 70,000 individuals who lost homes, businesses and family members in fires sparked by its equipment. Some victims expressed concern at the time that the deal carried steep risks for them, noting that the shares weren’t guaranteed to rebound and could fall if PG&E started more fires. Those concerns so far have proved prescient. PG&E shares are worth approximately the same as when the trust was funded, threatening victims’ ability to receive full compensation. Their value is down roughly 25% this year and fell steeply last month when the company disclosed that its equipment might have ignited this summer’s continuing Dixie Fire, which has consumed nearly 490,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada foothills and destroyed the town of Greenville.
