Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, this medium was one of the first to report the latest developments related to the NukeGate investigation – a criminal investigation into South Carolina’s spectacularly failed attempt to build two next-generation nuclear reactors north of the state capital, Columbia.
This huge economic disaster commanded the return of billions of taxpayers and taxpayers from the state of Palmetto – for which they received only a few cents on the dollar in compensation (see here and here)
The latest news related to this case? The November 24, 2020 announcement that Kevin Marsh – the former executive director of SCANA, one of the two entities involved in NukeGate – agreed to plead guilty to two charges related to his role in the scandal.
Marsh has not yet formally pleaded, but has signed an agreement to do so.
The 65-year-old is in line to spend at least a year and a half behind bars – and who assumes that your cooperation with prosecutors will help advance your case.
If Marsh’s cooperation isn’t beneficial to prosecutors, he could go to prison for up to a decade.
As we noted, Marsh is the second ex-SCANA employee to agree to a criminal case. The company’s former vice president Stephen A. Byrne pleaded guilty to telegraphing fraud in July in connection with this investigation – which began in 2017 after the shocking implosion of the nuclear reactor project.
Byrne also signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors.
To recap: SCANA and its partner, public utility Santee Cooper, were encouraged by state legislators to spend or borrow more than $ 10 billion on the construction of a pair of state-of-the-art nuclear reactors in Jenkinsville, SC. These reactors should be operational in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Despite the large disbursement of money, the project was never completed – and the two concessionaires could not pay the estimated amount $ 10-16 billion price tag needed to finish it.
On July 31, 2017, Santee Cooper shut down the reactors. Shortly after, it was revealed that executives from both dealerships knew that the project had been doomed for years and did not warn the public. Instead, they allegedly hid that critical information from regulators while continuing to raise rates and accumulate additional debt. Santee Cooper, for example, lied openly about bail documents … and tried to raise his clients’ fees just a week before shutting down the project.
SCANA was sold to Virginia Dominion Energy in the aftermath of the disaster, while Santee Cooper currently finds himself in increasingly thin ice with lawmakers … a position that has been aggravated by a series of subsequent mistakes.
Will it be sold too?
We’ll see … but those chances have certainly improved in recent weeks, as Santee Cooper alienated several important legislative leaders.
(Click to view)
(Via: High Flyer SC)
In the meantime, however … where is the investigation into the NukeGate directed fiasco?
This week, publisher Jerry Bellune of The Lexington Chronicle published a report claiming that the ongoing investigation was “broadening” – with “Santee Cooper executives, lawyers and lobbyists” being “swept away” by the investigation.
“Santee Cooper executives who knew what was going on lied to board members,” reported Bellune, citing unidentified sources.
Bellune also reported that the former SCANA board members “who gave millions in bonuses to Marsh and Byrne are also under investigation”.
As for Marsh’s plea bargain, Bellune reported that the more the former CEO assists in “the ongoing investigation of others at SCANA and Santee Cooper, the greater his chances of a lower prison sentence”.
Is this information consistent with what we are hearing?
Yes and no …
First, as we noted in our previous coverage, federal prosecutors are clearly focused on bringing Westinghouse – the contractor in the construction of the failed reactors – and his parent company, Toshiba.
As Marsh and Byrne’s cooperation is being sought at the federal level, we believe it is mainly with these goals in mind.
As for Santee Cooper, we find it difficult to believe that the state concessionaire would be completely clean in NukeGateRelated charges – as previously suggested by other media outlets in the state.
“If this is true, so this whole investigation is a scam”, We wrote last spring.
After all, the evidence that involves the dealership leaders in the deception of bondholders, regulators and taxpayers is just too compelling.
Consequently, we have no problem accepting Bellune’s suggestion that former Santee Cooper “executives, lawyers and lobbyists” could very well be under the microscope of investigators and prosecutors.
And if they are not, they sure should be …
Whether at the federal or state level, someone should blame Santee Cooper.
As for Bellune’s suggestion that the former SCANA board members are under investigation, this is inconsistent with what our sources are telling us – although we will certainly keep our ears open when talking to those close to the investigation.
As noted earlier, this investigation has not always been smooth. In fact, we are told that some of the territorial wars and directional disputes that broke out during the childhood of the investigation have returned … pitting investigators and prosecutors from different agencies and jurisdictions against each other while seeking to advance the case.
How will this affect the trajectory and direction of the investigation?
Good question …
In addition, we will be very interested to see how the expected appointment of a new United States attorney for South Carolina under presumed elected president Joe Biden could impact the investigation.
-FITSNews
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