CRANBERRY TWP — Filings in federal criminal cases related to Westinghouse Electric Co.'s failed South Carolina nuclear power plant project paint a broader picture of the alleged fraud in which the Cranberry-based company partook.

The scheme, according to criminal cases against two former SCANA Corp. executives, led to a significant increase in the price South Carolina utility customers paid for electricity, and defrauded investors who received inaccurate information about the status and expected completion dates of the Virgil C. Summer nuclear plant expansion.

Recently, Westinghouse agreed to pay a $21.25 million cooperation agreement, avoiding criminal charges.

The two former employees — former CEO Kevin Marsh and former executive vice president Stephen Andrew Byrne — each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court in South Carolina in connection with the failed project.

SCANA was a utility company providing electric and gas to South Carolina customers before its acquisition in 2019 by Dominion Energy Inc.

Westinghouse, according to both a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina and criminal filings in the Marsh and Byrne cases, was contracted to expand the VC Summer power plant with two nuclear reactors in 2008.“The project was to do something that ... had not been done in the United States since (the) late 1970s: build a nuclear power plant, with the idea that this success would spark a nuclear renaissance and provide for reduction on the dependence of fossil fuels,” said assistant U.S. attorney James May during Marsh's change-of-plea hearing in February.Westinghouse and SCANA projected the project would be finished by 2019, making it possible to obtain $1.4 billion in federal tax credits as a result. But, the filings state, by 2016 both companies were aware their 2019 projection was untenable.In fact, Westinghouse estimated it would be unable to complete the project because of the losses it would incur as a result, the filings state. Nevertheless, both companies continued pursuing the project.

Under South Carolina law, SCANA was able to apply for rate increases to pay for the cost of the ongoing construction project, in addition to raising rates following the completion of a project to pay down debt. Between 2009 and 2017, according to the filings, SCANA applied for and received approval for nine rate increases between 2009 and 2017 because of the money spent on the project. May characterized the rate increases as SCANA profiting on money spent on the construction, increasing its financial performance as a company.In fact, even after SCANA and Westinghouse were aware of the increased likelihood of an unfinished project, the utility company continued raising rates.“At least by late 2016, the information Marsh received had reached a critical mass about the project's poor performance and inability to meet promised deadlines,” May said. “At this point in 2016, the disclosure to the regulatory agencies and the public was required. At this point ... Mr. Marsh did not make these disclosures, but repeated positive information about the project status.”

Marsh and Byrne both pleaded guilty under separate, but similar, plea agreements that require they cooperate with authorities investigating the Summer project.Westinghouse, in addition to its $21.25 million settlement, has paid more than $2 billion in restitution to SCANA, Santee Cooper and contractors.Since the project's dissolution in 2017, Westinghouse declared bankruptcy and was acquired from Toshiba by Brookfield Business Partners.Two former Westinghouse executives — manager Carl Churchman and senior vice president for new plants and major projects Jeffrey A. Benjamin — face federal charges.Churchman has pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to investigators. Benjamin, who was arraigned in South Carolina federal court Aug. 31, faces one count of conspiracy, 14 counts of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud, and one count of causing the failure to keep accurate corporate records.The investigation — despite the three guilty pleas, one corporate settlement and another indictment — is ongoing, the South Carolina U.S. Attorney's Office stated.