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An executive who spent billions of dollars on two South Carolina nuclear plants that never generated a watt of power, lying and deceiving regulators about their progress, is ready to go to prison.

… Marsh lied and presented rosy projections on the progress of the reactors that he knew was false in earning calls, presentations and press releases. The CEO wanted to keep investors pumping money into the project and the company’s stock price up, prosecutors said.

… Marsh never wavered from saying the two reactors being built at the V.C. Summer site north of Columbia would be finished by the end of 2020 — a deadline they had to meet if they were going to receive the $1.4 billion in federal tax credits needed to keep the $10 billion project from overwhelming the utility and its minority partner, state-owned Santee Cooper.

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Evidence presented in court showed Marsh intentionally defrauded SCANA customers while overseeing and managing the company’s operations, including the construction of two reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear station so that the company could obtain and retain rate increases on its customers and apply for up to $2.2 billion in tax credits, a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office states.

“Due to this fraud, an $11 billion nuclear ghost town, paid for by SCANA investors and customers, now sits vacant in Jenkinsville, S.C.,” DeHart said. “Hopefully, this prosecution will deter other corporate fraud in the future.”