Federal officials have charged top SCANA Corp. executives with fraud.
The civil lawsuit appears designed to claw back millions of dollars the executives took into retirement.
It could lead to criminal charges, but federal officials won’t comment on that.
The 2 executives named – and others unnamed – in the 87-page filing left:
• Thousands of SCANA employees with millions in lost retirement nest eggs.
Their stock plummeted from more than $70 a share to just above $40 a share.
• 725,000 SC Electric & Gas ratepayers owing another $2.3 billion for the 2 abandoned reactors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission accused former executives, and SC Electric & Gas, now known as Lexington County-based Dominion Energy SC, with defrauding investors.
The SEC said the accused made false and misleading statements about the $9 billion nuclear project.
The SEC charges SCANA, its former CEO Kevin Marsh, former Executive Vice President Stephen Byrne and subsidiary SCE&G misled investors about a nuclear project they later abandoned.
Unnamed was Jimmy Addison, who participated with Marsh and Byrne in Public Service Commission hearings and succeeded Marsh as SCANA CEO.
Marsh, 64, of Irmo, was paid $7.3 million in bonuses. Byrne, 59, of Isle of Palms, got $3.4 million.
They told investors including thousands of their current and retired employees that this would qualify SCE&G for more than $1 billion in tax credits.
The Chronicle asked Lexington County lawmakers and others for comment.
Sen. Dick Harpootlian, who represents the Irmo area, said, “Hopefully this is just the beginning of these folks’ legal troubles.”
Tom Clements, a PSC rate intervenor said, “I regarded Marsh, Byrne and Addison as dodgy characters selling snake oil to gouge the ratepayers and line their own pockets no matter the damage it would do.
“Federal criminal charges should now be filed on top of the civil action. Marsh should be forced to pay back all his ill-gotten gains.”