The Grinch Who Stole South Carolina’s Christmas
/SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh to plead guilty to federal conspiracy fraud charges
By The Fairewinds Crew
Much like the Friday afternoon news-dump, almost no one watches, reads, or pays attention to the news during the holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s week are a time of family get-togethers, vacations, and travel. Even with the Pandemic 2020 at its highest stage yet, peeps are still not watching the news during the holiday break in an attempt to share some normalcy, gentleness, and Zoom time with faraway family and friends.
So, you know that when a shockingly important news story gets delivered just before Thanksgiving and again during New Year’s week, it’s called a ‘news dump’. No matter what, you know the truth is somehow ‘hiding in plain sight’!
Just before Thanksgiving, The State online publication broke this news:
“Former SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh has agreed to plead guilty to federal conspiracy fraud charges, go to prison for at least 18 months and forfeit $5 million in connection with SCANA’s $10 billion nuclear fiasco, according to papers filed in the U.S. District Court in South Carolina.
Marsh, 65, who now lives in North Carolina, helped lead a two-year cover-up, from 2016 to 2018, of the serious financial trouble that was jeopardizing the success of not only the ongoing Fairfield County nuclear project but also the troubled financial health of SCANA, according to records and evidence in the case.
At the time, the now-defunct SCANA was a respected gas and electric publicly-traded utility and the only Fortune 500 company in South Carolina. It had 700,000 electric customers and 350,000 natural gas customers.”
Just as his defenders and cronies at SCANA had hoped, the truth about the Grinch who stole Christmas from South Carolina ratepayers was hardly noticed by the national media during the holidays. The national media has been absolutely overwhelmed as it tries to keep up with Trumpian shenanigans and the actions of other corporate grifters around the country like those in the Ohio State Legislature bribery case, all of whom are beholden to the nuke industry grifters and their bribes. Millions of people are out of money, out of work, and facing evictions. More than 330,000 people have already died from Pandemic 2020.
According to The State, federal prosecutors note,
“Marsh, SCANA CEO from 2011 to 2017, will need to have his guilty plea formally accepted by a U.S. District Court judge before it becomes official. Under the plea agreement, Marsh will likely face a prison term of between 18 and 36 months.
However, charges against him — conspiracy and obtaining property under false pretenses — expose him to a maximum of 10 years, according to court records. The more he cooperates in helping prosecutors with an ongoing investigation that is said to involve others, the greater his chances are of a lower prison sentence, according to documents and evidence in the case.”
Marsh was scheduled to plead and be formally sentenced on Tuesday, December 29, 2020, but prosecutors postponed the hearing for logistical reasons. The State had some rather scathing words for Mr. Marsh:
“Marsh’s agreement to plead guilty — he will apparently do so before a federal judge in the next few weeks — is yet another piece of evidence that demonstrates that SCANA’s disintegration and nuclear plant downfall were not just due to incompetence but to criminal conduct by the company’s top leaders.” [Emphasis Added]
Throughout the U.S., white-collar crime — to enrich the few and sandbag the rest of us for their billion-dollar shenanigans — only seems to increase every year. The most recent and notable being Georgia senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler’s misuse of government information and insider trading to line their already deep pockets. As of December 9th, the wealthiest 651 billionaires’ wealth collectively jumped more than 36% since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. All the while, millions of people around the country are out of work, without adequate food and shelter, and facing a bleak future filled with illness and no funds to pay for medical care.
That is why it is so insulting that these white-collar crimes continue unabated, especially when those crimes take advantage of those suffering so much already:
U.S. Attorney for South Carolina Peter McCoy said, “In these already challenging times, no one should be able to use a position of trust, power, and influence to take from the hardworking people of South Carolina ... (T)his office will continue to work with our federal and state partners to stand firm against those who would seek to defraud South Carolina taxpayers.”
Despite all of that, there is still the small matter of the $9 billion hole in the ground that shareholders are not willing to pay for! South Carolina ratepayers will be stuck paying that bill in yearly installments for the next 40 years! Yes, South Carolina’s SCANA executives lied, but it is SC ratepayers that are stuck paying the consequences of those lies!
Think about how many small South Carolina businesses might have been started up or supported during this pandemic with $9 Billion!
How many employees would each of those businesses have hired?
How many school lunches or school computers could have been purchased?
How South Carolina’s high electric rates will drive away new businesses.
These criminal charges and settlements won’t change Grinches from behaving the same way elsewhere in the US.
It’s only a slap on the wrist for the utility industry and devastating to South Carolinians and their finances!
Is this a fitting way to end 2020?
Bah Humbug, we say at Fairewinds.
It’s the same old story.
Bad news gets hidden in the holiday rush,
while the power brokers count on graft and bribery to reap exorbitant profits.
The Fairewinds Crew works through these holiday ‘news dumps’ to keep you informed.
If you are able, please help us keep you informed in 2021 with a year-end donation!
