Former executive director of the South Carolina energy utility SCANA should plead guilty in federal court this week … but the hearing was canceled.
Kevin Marsh expected to plead guilty to a federal conspiracy charge in connection with NukeGate – the failed construction of an abandoned pair of nuclear reactors that attracted contributors and contributors from the State of Palmetto more than $ 10 billion.
The hearing before the US district court judge Mary Geiger Lewis was set for 10am EST on Tuesday, December 29, 2020 – but the US attorney’s office Peter M. McCoy Jr. announced on Monday afternoon that the hearing was closed.
Also canceled? A subsequent hearing before the SC circuit court judge J. Mark Hayes II in which Marsh was to plead guilty to a charge of obtaining property through false pretenses “with the intention of cheating and defrauding”.
As we reported last month, Marsh is expected to spend at least a year and a half behind bars in connection with the federal prosecution – assuming his testimony will be beneficial to prosecutors as they train this ongoing investigation for their next targets.
If it’s not beneficial, he could go to prison for up to a decade.
Specifically, Marsh agreed “to be completely honest and direct with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, providing complete, complete and truthful information about all criminal activities of which he is aware”.
According to our sources, Marsh and former vice president SCANA Stephen A. Byrne agreed to assist prosecutors when they begin to focus their investigations on Westinghouse – the contractor on the damaged reactors.
Byrne pleaded guilty to electronic fraud in July in connection with this investigation.
How did we get here?
To recap: SCANA (which has already been sold to Virginia Dominion Energy) and government administered public service Santee Cooper were partners in the NukeGate project, a definite economic failure that left taxpayers and taxpayers in the state of Palmetto facing a mountain of debt.
Encouraged by state legislators, these two concessionaires spent or borrowed more than $ 10 billion in the construction of a pair of pressurized water reactors in Jenkinsville, SC, which were due to start operating in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Despite the large expenditure of money, the project was never completed – and the two concessionaires could not pay the estimated amount $ 10-16 billion price tag needed to complete it.
On July 31, 2017, Santee Cooper shut down the reactors. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that executives at both dealerships knew that the reactors had been doomed for years and did not warn the public.
Instead, they allegedly hid critical information from regulators while continuing to raise rates and accrue additional debt. Santee Cooper, for example, openly lied about bail documents … and tried to raise his clients’ fees just a week before shutting down the project.
SCANA and Santee Cooper customers recovered only a few cents on the dollar in connection with several high-profile deals.
When will Marsh answer for his role in this fiasco?
According to our sources, hearings are expected to be rescheduled in the coming weeks – possibly as early as next week.
Why were hearings delayed?
According to our sources, Hayes had “concerns” about the plea agreement – particularly with regard to the estimate $ 5 million Marsh must pay in refund for his alleged crimes.
“These are not concerns, but questions,” another source familiar with the situation told us.
Attorney General McCoy and SC Alan Wilson reportedly reached an agreement earlier this year to direct the refund money to a fund that provides financial assistance to low-income citizens who are having trouble paying their energy bills.
Hayes – who is known in the Palmetto judiciary for his meticulousness – asked some pointed questions about this restitution agreement, questions to which prosecutors apparently had no ready answers.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Marsh has worked at SCANA for 33 years. He became vice president and chief financial officer of the company in 1996 and senior vice president two years later. A sycophantic profile of Marsh from the May 2013 edition of Columbia Metropolitan the magazine praised him as a “leader (SCANA) and South Carolina in a nuclear energy revival that will see the state’s first new nuclear plants built in more than 25 years”.
Obviously, This did not happened …
We will be maintaining a very watch out for any developments related to Marsh’s plea bargain, as it is believed to be central to the ongoing investigation.
Stay tuned …
-FITSNews
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