Life in the fast lane: Pink Energy execs drove Porsche, luxury cars on company dime

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - As the bankruptcy proceedings continue for North Carolina based solar power company Pink Energy, internal records from the business reveal executive leaders’ expensive tastes in cars was put on the corporate credit card.

WBTV exclusively obtained copies of invoices for the vehicles Pink Energy, formerly known as Power Home Solar, was leasing. The records show CEO Jayson Waller and other top officials within in the company were driving luxury cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on the company dime.

Thousands of Pink Energy customers across the country are stuck paying off loans for solar panel systems, many of them not working and not delivering the savings they were promised.

The records show Waller was leasing a 2021 Porsche Taycan, valued at $219,000 by the dealer, and costing the company $3,335 monthly.

President Steve Murphy had a 2020 Jaguar F-Pace with a monthly charge of $1,495. WBTV saw Murphy exiting the Jaguar while visiting the Mooresville office after the company announced it was closing.

Chief Sales Officer Ben Brookhart was leasing a Range Rover for $1,295 per month.

In the company’s bankruptcy filing, Pink listed more than $700,000 in debt to the leasing company. That includes the executives’ luxury cars and the company’s other fleet vehicles. Other court filings show the value of the fleet more than $10 million.

In a bankruptcy filing, Pink claimed the company had less than $4 million in assets even while reporting almost $900 million in revenue since the start of 2021.

The financial statements show over the last year, Waller collected nearly $1 million in salary, and was reimbursed another $700,000 in expenses. Six of his family members with company jobs took home another $700,000 combined in the last year.

WBTV sent Waller a LinkedIn message asking about the car expenses and how he justified the cost. Waller didn’t answer that question and instead pointed to a new class action lawsuit filed against the company that supplied batteries for Pink Energy systems.

Attorneys representing Pink Energy customers tell WBTV it is unlikely the bankruptcy settlement will result in much, if any, money in customers’ pockets.