Former SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh expected to plead guilty to cover-up of financial crimes

BY JOHN MONK
FEBRUARY 11, 2021 05:00 AM, UPDATED 2 HOURS 1 MINUTE AGO

COLUMBIA, SC
After months of delay, former SCANA ex-CEO Kevin Marsh is now expected to plead guilty formally to a variety of white collar crimes at a Feb. 24 hearing in federal court in Columbia.

The new date for the hearing, originally set for November, was announced Wednesday in a press release by Peter McCoy, U.S attorney for South Carolina.

No reason was given for the delay.

Marsh, once one of South Carolina’s most prominent and well-paid executives, has agreed to plead guilty to federal conspiracy fraud charges, go to prison for at least 18 months and forfeit $5 million in connection with SCANA’s $10 billion failed effort to build nuclear reactors in Fairfield County, according to papers filed in the U.S. District Court in South Carolina.

Specifically, a charging document in the case says, Marsh helped lead a two-year cover-up, from 2016 to 2018, of the serious financial trouble that was jeopardizing the success of not only the ongoing Fairfield County nuclear project but also the troubled financial health of SCANA, according to records and evidence in the case.

At the time, the now-defunct SCANA was a respected, publicly traded gas and electric utility and the only Fortune 500 company in South Carolina. It had 700,000 electric customers and 350,000 natural gas customers.

The actions Marsh and other top SCANA officials took to cover up the mounting troubles at the nuclear construction site led the once-secure company into severe financial straits and made it a target for a takeover. SCANA’s stock price plummeted from around $70 per share to the low $40s. In early 2019, SCANA became a fully owned subsidiary of Dominion Energy, one of the nation’s largest publicly traded electric utilities.

SCANA’s junior partner in the ill-fated venture, was Santee Cooper, a South Carolina state agency. But no criminal charges have been brought against any Santee Cooper executives.

The failure of the V.C. Summer plant left more than 4,000 constructions workers jobless. Other losers in the affair were SCANA’s and Santee Cooper’s monthly ratepayers, who paid extra charges each month for years to pay for ongoing construction at the nuclear project.

Last July, Stephen Byrne, the number two top SCANA executive pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in SCANA’s downfall.

Byrne’s guilty plea was the first official confirmation that the failure of the nuclear project was not just due to simple mismanagement mistakes at a complex project — one of the biggest ever undertaken in South Carolina — but also resulted from criminal conduct at SCANA’s highest levels.

Byrne is now out on bond.

Federal prosecutors in the case are Emily Limehouse, Brook Andrews, Winston Holliday and Jim May.

Marsh’s lawyers include Robert Bolchoz of Columbia, and Brady Hair and Derk Van Raalte IV, both of Charleston. Also representing Marsh is Anne Tompkins of Charlotte, a former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

https://www.thestate.com/news/local/...igest_politics