SEC Charges Spruce Power Holding Corporation with Misleading Investors on Revenue Projections

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Denver-based Spruce Power Holding Corporation, the successor of XL Fleet Corp., for providing investors misleading revenue projections. XL Fleet, a provider of hybrid electric vehicle systems for commercial fleet vehicles, had stated its sales pipeline was worth more than $220 million 12-months prior to the 2020 merger with a SPAC. With this, they projected near-term revenue of up to $75 million and longer-term projections of up to $1.4 billion. The SEC found that these projections were based on misleading information as the sales pipeline consisted primarily of speculative opportunities, customers they could not legally provide products to, or stale opportunities.Without admitting any wrongdoing, Spruce Power has agreed to cease-and-desist orders from the SEC and pay a penalty of $11 million. The investigation was assisted and supervised by Mark Oh, Christine Chen, John Archfield, Timothy Halloran, Jeffrey Weiss, Kristen Dieter, and Mark Cave.