US Sentences Former CEO of Energy Company to 2 Years for Wire, Mail Fraud - Justice Dept.

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th October, 2021) Former Chief Executive Officer of an electric utility firm Atlanta-based SCANA Kevin Marsh has been sentenced to 2 years in prison for conspiring to defraud ratepayers in order to retain over $2 billion in tax credits following the company's failure to build two new units for a nuclear plant in South Carolina, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday.

"Acting United States Attorney M. Rhett DeHart announced today that Kevin B. Marsh, 66, former SCANA Corporation (SCANA) Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the board of Directors, was sentenced to two years in Federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud," the Justice Department said in a press release.

In late 2016, Marsh was overseeing a project that involved an expansion of Virgil C.

Summer Nuclear Station in South Carolina. After being informed that the project was running late, he conspired with others to conceal this information from federal regulators in a bid to keep the project going and retain billions in tax credits, the release said.

Besides that, Marsh made a number of false statements that allowed SCANA to obtain permission to increase rates imposed on the company's rate-paying customers, the release said.

In addition to the prison sentence, Marsh has also paid $5 million in federal forfeiture prior to his sentencing and will pay a fine of $200,000, according to the release.

At the end of 2020, SCANA agreed to pay at least $137.5 million in fines and disgorgement over the failed expansion of Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station in South Carolina.