Certain bondholders of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA/AEE) again criticized the Financial Oversight and Management Board (JSF) for its backing of the temporary generation contract awarded to Power Expectations. In a written statement, the bondholders called the failed contract further evidence of the board’s pattern of noncompliance where PREPA is concerned, and said it reaffirms the need for the state utility to change course.
The members of the Oversight Board should be replaced or the Oversight Board should be dissolved for being an obstacle to successfully restructuring PREPA,
"The members of the Oversight Board should be replaced or the Oversight Board should be dissolved for being an obstacle to successfully restructuring PREPA," they said. They argued that for nearly a decade the board has directly "supervised" PREPA, yet the utility "remains operationally inefficient" and its service unstable. The organized bondholders said approval of the power purchase agreement with Power Expectations raises questions about the board’s contract review process.
According to their statement, when the board received a version of the contract signed by "Jhoby Weaks," who purported to act as Enchanted Rock’s Caribbean chief operating officer, it performed no basic due diligence. The bondholders echoed findings from journalistic investigations in Puerto Rico, allegations of conflicts of interest involving the law firm O’Neill & Borges, and complaints from ERock Inc. In June, the Texas energy company warned Josué Colón, executive director of the Public-Private Partnerships Authority and the island’s energy czar, that Power Expectations had authorized Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks, a crypto investor convicted of investor fraud and tax evasion, to sign the agreement without being employed by or authorized by its subsidiary Enchanted Rock LLC.
According to El Nuevo Día’s investigation and the probe by the House Government Committee, Colón received several text messages and communications before the contract was signed but did not treat them with urgency.