The July 23announcement前认罪的扫描A executive Stephen A. Byrne to federal charges of mail and wire fraud related to the failed V.C. Summer nuclear expansion project—along with a pledge to cooperate with federal authorities—sets up a possible day of reckoning for the South Carolina utility’s former CEO Kevin B. Marsh.

马什（Marsh）是该案的共同被告人，他仍然面临指控，伯恩（Byrne）的认罪与合作可以加强对首席执行官的案件。

A highly detailed complaint by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, filed Feb. 27, alleges that Byrne and Marsh knowingly misled regulators and investor analysts by describing the project’s progress in positive terms, when in fact both men, and others, knew the project was “going up in flames.”

By making the alleged false statements, Byrne and Marsh sought to secure rate increases to pay for the work, prosecutors charged.

The SEC’s complaint also details attempts allegedly made by Byrne and Marsh to conceal a report by Bechtel from public scrutiny that had a much gloomier assessment of the project.

U.S. Attorney Peter M. McCoy, Jr. announced the plea agreement with FBI Special Agent Jody Norris, who characterized the conspiracy's goal as one to "enrich a few by robbing families and communities within South Carolina.”

美国司法部的声明指出，2016年6月，拜恩和其他SCANA高管密谋向南卡罗来纳州公共服务委员会，州监管工作人员办公室和公众欺骗客户。

伯恩（Byrne）在委员会之前作证说，该公用事业公司已为该项目提供了几种可能的最终成本情况。但是，检察官的说法他在2016年6月意识到该项目的施工时间表和完成日期是不现实的，不可能实现。新核项目的两个单位不太可能及时完成，有资格获得14亿美元的联邦核生产税收抵免。

Construction work at the project jobsite in Jenkinsville, S.C., and at remote fabrication sites where modules were created, began in 2013, but work was halted in July 2017 when SCANA abandoned the project without completing either unit. Another new nuclear project, in Georgia, remains under construction but is far overbudget and late.

Also named in the complaint is Dominion Energy, which completed a merger with SCANA Corp. in January 2019. Dominion spokesman Ryan Frazier told ENR that “Dominion Energy continues to cooperate fully with state and federal authorities in this ongoing investigation, pursuant to the terms of the cooperation agreement,” and had no further comment.

该死的指控

The SEC’s 87-page complaint, filed Feb. 27 in U.S. District Court in Columbia, S.C., and containing a string of detailed, quote-filled allegations, starts by summarizing that “SCANA and its senior executives repeatedly deceived investors, regulators and the public over several years.”

The SEC’s filing adds depth to the utility executives' intent to deceive. It quotes one SCANA executive who wrote to a colleague that “the failed expansion project at V.C. Summer was due to ‘[e]go and un-attentiveness,’ and that the fallout was ‘[g]onna be a blood letting the likes of which we have never seen.’”

The SCANA executive added: “We ‘got on our jet airplanes and flew around the country showing the same damn construction pictures from different angles and played our fiddles while the whole mf [sic] was going up in flames.’”

据SEC称，早在2015年4月（据称阴谋开始就开始之前），Byrne和其他人开始意识到该项目的重大问题，此后不久，就开始密谋从公众审查中隐藏这些问题。

For example, an April 28, 2015 “CEO Talking Points” memo received by Byrne called out contractor Westinghouse for lacking credibility for developing either a realistic schedule or cost estimate. As a result, the memorandum stated further that “The continued failure to meet schedule (Unit 2 now at least 39 months late, and Unit 3 at least 18 months late . . . ) has severely impacted credibility and has placed ongoing regulatory and financial support in jeopardy.”

Just two days later, on April 28, during a first quarter earnings call, Byrne made no mention of these concerns, and maintained that the new units would complete by the respective target dates of June 2019 and June 2020.

Responding to a question from an investor analyst during the call about the risk to production tax credits, Byrne replied: “We believe that … we will actually be qualifying for more production tax credits than we had originally anticipated in our original filing.”

Byrne went on to add that “We fully anticipate that [Westinghouse] will be able to bring the plants in by June of 2019 and June of 2020 for the second unit.”

正如隐藏的Bechtel报告最终将详细介绍的那样，这些日期几乎没有实现的可能性。

Hidden Bechtel Report

美国证券交易委员会（SEC）的2020年法律投诉将一部分专门用于Bechtel生产的项目分析。

2015年8月，SCANA（即“通过其律师）表示，SCANA的成本为100万美元，雇用了Bechtel Power Corp.对核扩展项目进行评估。

On Oct. 22, 2015, according to the SEC, Bechtel presented its findings to SCANA, noting that “the current schedule is at risk” and that “[t]o-go scope quantities, installation rates, productivity, and staffing levels all point to completion later than current forecast.”

More precisely, Bechtel’s report indicated that Unit 2’s completion wouldn’t occur until between December 2020 and August 2021—or between 18 and 26 months later than its completion date at the time, which was still June 2019. Unit 3, which was then scheduled to complete by June 2020, most likely couldn’t be completed before June 2022, and as late as June 2023, Bechtel’s analysis projected.

In turn, on Oct. 27—five days after receiving the Bechtel report—SCANA announced a revision in the contractual “Guaranteed Substantial Completion Dates” that added just two months to the units’ completion targets—Aug. 31, 2019 Aug. 31, 2020 for units 2 and 3, respectively.

法官部的认罪交易公告指出，伯恩在联邦监狱中面临五年的最高刑罚，等待对美国缓刑办公室准备的量刑报告进行审查。