Former SCANA CEO to plead guilty to fraud charges

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Former SCANA Corp. CEO Kevin Marsh will plead guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Matthew J. Perry Federal Courthouse at 901 Richland St., according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Peter M. McCoy Jr.

Following the plea in federal court, Marsh is scheduled for a hearing on a state charge at noon at the Richland County Judicial Center at 1701 Main St.

Marsh retired from SCANA in 2017. In July 2017, the V.C. Summer nuclear project, co-owned by SCANA and Santee Cooper, was abandoned in the wake of mounting delays and rising costs after more than $9 billion had been spent on its construction.

Former SCANA COO and executive vice president Stephen Byrne, 60, pled guilty to federal mail and wire fraud charges in July and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. SCANA and subsidiary S.C. Electric & Gas settled a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit charging the companies with defrauding investors last month.

SCANA asked for and received approval for nine rate increases from state regulators during the reactors’ construction. Company executives are alleged to have hidden damaging information about the project’s problems.

The charges against Byrne were the first to be filed after a three-year investigation into the abandoned nuclear project by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the S.C. Law Enforcement Division.

The SEC complaint, filed in S.C. federal court in February, alleged that SCANA, SCE&G, and two former senior executives misled investors by claiming that the nuclear project would qualify the company for more than $1 billion in tax credits when they knew the project was far behind schedule and therefore unlikely to qualify for the tax credits. The complaint alleged that the false statements and omissions boosted SCANA’s stock price and enabled it to raise customer rates and sell more than $1 billion in bonds.

“This conspiracy to defraud SCANA customers is breathtaking in scope and audacity,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Jody Norris said in a news release announcing Byrne’s plea. “The FBI remains committed to ensure all those responsible for this crime, which only served to enrich a few by robbing families and communities within South Carolina, are held accountable.”