Final payments from a trust funded by utility PG&E to compensate victims of wildfires caused by its power lines will soon be distributed, but none will make the victims whole for their losses, the Wall Street Journal reported. The trust was created in 2020 after PG&E reached a $13.5 billion settlement with roughly 70,000 people who suffered losses and damages. The company, which had sought bankruptcy protection after the fires, used equal parts cash and stock to fund it. The trust this month sold its last block of shares, finalizing the amount of money available for distribution to victims. Its assets are worth just over $14 billion, more than the nominal value of the settlement. Victims’ claims, though, are expected to top $19 billion. They have so far received about 60% of their value, and the final percentage will likely be much lower than what some attorneys touted at the time the settlement was negotiated. “I understand and I’m very sympathetic to the fact that people had the impression they were going to get 100%, but that was never true,” said Cathy Yanni, an attorney who serves as trustee of the trust. “In bankruptcy, no one gets 100%.” PG&E, as part of its plan to exit bankruptcy, agreed to pay more than $25 billion overall to compensate for wildfire-related losses, but two other major settlements — with California governments and insurance companies — paid those parties entirely in cash. Fire victims were the only class of claimants to be compensated with shares in the company.
