By Jerry Bellune
JerryBellune@yahoo.com
Without explanation, plea hearings for an ex-SCANA CEO were postponed late Monday,
Kevin Marsh's back-to-back federal and state court appearances Tuesday were postponed with no future date announced..
The former boss of Lexington County-based SCANA was to plead guilty to federal conspiracy fraud charges at the 1st hearing.
He faces up to 10 years in prison but has negotiated to serve 18 to 30 months.
He also agreed to forfeit $5 million in bonuses he was paid by the SCANA board for his mis-management of $10 billion nuclear fiasco.
Attorney General Alan Wilson's Office announced the postponement of the federal and state hearings with no reason given.
The US Attorney’s Office said the postponement was “due to logistics.” A rescheduled date will be announced later.
Marsh, 65, was to plead guilty Tuesday at Columbia’s federal courthouse before appearing in Richland County Court on state charges.
The state has chaged him with lying to cover up the bungled $10 billion nuclear reactor project to obtain millions of dollars in bonuses and $2.2 billion in rate increases from SCANA's ratepayers.
Federal prosecutors charged Marsh with leading a 2-year cover-up, of the engneering and financial mismanagement that led to abandoning the nuclear reactors and SCANA's downfall and sale to Dominion Energy.
Marsh's COO Stephen Byrne is also charged in the bilion dollar fraud.
Byrne pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy and is out on bond.
Byrne agreed to help prosecutors build cases against Mafsh and potentially other executives and conspirators in the fraud.