By Jerry Bellune

JerryBellune@yahoo.com

Ex-SCANA executives are waiting for more federal indictments in a $9.8 billion fraud.

Now a federal judge has ordered discovery in an investor lawsuit against SCANA's partner, Santee Cooper.

Attorneys for the investor, Murray Turka, filed the federal complaint against:

1. The SC taxpayer-owned Santee Cooper utility which was a 45% partner in a $9.8 billion nuclear reactor fiasco.

Mid-Carolina Electrfic Cooperative members in Lexington County were charged higher rates for the fiasco's costs.

2. Ex-Santee Cooper CEO Lonnie Carter who retired with an $800,000-a-year golden parachute.

Turka alleges Carter violated federal law by failing to warn investors of the nuclear project's failures when mini-bonds were sold.

Santee Cooper sold $117.8 million in mini-bonds directly to state residents in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

In his class action lawsuit, Turka said he invested $15,000 in the bonds in 2014.

A Santee Cooper spokeswoman said all mini-bonds were called Jan. 1 and the program was closed.

On June 25, US Judge Richard Gergel ordered discovery to start in preparation for jury selection and trial in July 2021.

Both sides are to file lists of expert witnesses by December 2020.

Final motions and pre-trial briefs are due 5 days before jury selection.

Gergel rejected Santee Cooper's and Carter's motions to dismiss the case.

The judge ruled Turka and other investors could sue due to "sufficiently alleged misstatements or material omissions" in bond documents the nuclear fiasco which cost SCANA customers $2 billion and left them and Santee Cooper stuck with billions in debt.

The judge said. "The complaint generates a strong inference that Santee Cooper and Carter acted recklessly in that the danger of misleading mini-bond purchasers was so obvious that they must have been aware of it.

"Considering the totality of the circumstances alleged and giving the inferential weight warranted by context and common sense, the court finds that plaintiff plausibly pled at least reckless scienter [or knowledge of wrongdoing]."

Gergel also found that Turka and other investors suffered damages by receiving artificially deflated mini-bond interest payments.

The failed nuclear project's cost was originally estimated at $9.8 billion.

Based on its 45% ownership, Santee Cooper's original cost was estimated to be $4.4 billion.

State lawmakers are considering the best way to sell Santee Cooper.