COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The chief executive who spent billions of dollars on two South Carolina nuclear plants that never generated a single watt of power is heading to two courtrooms Tuesday to plead guilty.
Former SCANA Corp. CEO Kevin Marsh is scheduled to be in federal court at 10 a.m. Tuesday to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. He then will travel several blocks through downtown Columbia to the Richland County courthouse to plead guilty to state charges of obtaining property by false pretenses, prosecutors said.
Marsh signed a plea deal last month that almost guarantees he will go to prison as prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to a sentence of 18 months to 36 months behind bars. Prosecutors did agree to Marsh’s request that he spend all his prison time in federal custody instead of a state prison.
A judge will decide the sentence once the investigation into the failed nuclear plants ends. Marsh will also have to pay $5 million in restitution, with $3 million of it due before he is sentenced.
Marsh was in charge of construction of two new nuclear plants at the V.C. Summer site north of Columbia. The work ended up way behind almost immediately.
But prosecutors said Marsh lied to investors, regulators and the media, consistently saying the reactors would be making power by a 2020 deadline to get $1.4 billion in federal tax credits needed to keep the $10 billion project from overwhelming SCANA and its subsidiary, South Carolina Electric & Gas.
Marsh’s lies eventually took more than $1 billion from the pockets of stockholders and ratepayers, authorities said.
Former SCANA Executive Vice President Stephen Byrne pleaded guilty to similar federal charges in July. He is also awaiting sentencing.
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