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| Kemper Plant in Mississippi |
If you thought Southern Company's scandal-driven problems were starting to abate, now might be a good time to reconsider. The company is facing a lawsuit from a former employee that could result in $1.1 billion in damages, according to a report at banbalchcom. K.B. Forbes, publisher of the Ban Balch blog and CEO of its parent organization -- the CDLU public charity and advocacy group -- writes under the headline "$1.1 Billion in Damages? Southern Company Sued for Alleged Fraud in Mississippi; Federal Probes Continue":
The first shoe has dropped! As we reported in May of 2019, Southern Company was under federal investigation in Mississippi.
An excerpt from four years ago:
Atlanta-based Southern Company disclosed it is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice over a power plant that already has caused the company years of heartburn and billions of dollars.
Southern said it learned of the probe by the DOJ’s Civil Division on Monday and that it involved the Kemper County plant owned by the utility’s Mississippi Power subsidiary.
The trifecta of alleged criminal misconduct by Southern Company done in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi is starting to come into the public light.
Southern Company allowed Alabama Power and then-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite to do whatever they pleased because the most profitable subsidiary was helping pay for the billion-dollar cost overruns at two boondoggles: the Kemper Plant in Mississippi and the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia.
Now the first of three major actions against Southern Company has begun.
The first action could result in Southern Company having to pay triple damages, reports Forbes:
The Associated Press reports:
A former employee is suing to force a Mississippi utility to repay $382 million that the federal government gave to build a failed coal-fueled power plant.
Kelli Williams, a former construction manager for Atlanta-based Southern Co., filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the company and its subsidiary Mississippi Power Co. in 2018. That lawsuit, unsealed Monday, alleges that the two firms defrauded the U.S. Department of Energy and state regulators in a failed quest to build a $7.5 billion power plant.
Williams says the company lied repeatedly about the plant’s cost overruns and spiraling delays, enticing the U.S. Department of Energy to keep delivering subsidy payments and persuading the Mississippi Public Service Commission to not revoke its permission for construction.
“If DOE had known that defendants were intentionally deceiving the agency about the state of the Kemper project and were intentionally withholding accurate data about the project’s progress and viability, DOE would have ceased funding and supporting it,” an amended complaint filed Monday alleges.
If Williams wins, the company could be forced to pay triple damages, or more than $1.1 billion.
Forbes notes that such actions in the utility industry tend to move at a glacial pace. But that is to be expected, given the massive nature of related investigations:
It has taken five years to unseal the whistleblower lawsuit against Southern Company, but we are not surprised.
The Southern Company Criminal Enterprise is being held accountable, and the investigations currently underway are deep, massive in nature, and slowly coming together.
In Georgia, expect possible criminal charges and litigation against Southern Company regarding the other boondoggle: the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant.
In Alabama, look for potential RICO litigation, SEC fines, and criminal charges surrounding the years of illegal surveillance, harassment, and alleged corruption of the judicial branch by the Southern Company criminal enterprise.
Federal investigators are allegedly looking at obstruction of justice and accusations of criminal concealment.
In April of 2022, Federal Judge Abdul K. Kallon resigned and fled to Seattle.
The next day, two Assistant U.S. Attorneys allegedly left the Northern District of Alabama, followed by the shocking suicide of William “Bo” Lineberry, a Balch & Bingham partner who hanged himself.
The Abdul Kallon angle to this story hits close to home here at Legal Schnauzer. Both my wife, Carol, and I have had cases before Kallon, and he consistently ruled contrary to clearly established law in each matter -- with us, naturally, coming out on the short end of the stick each time. Strangely, we had three cases before Kallon in five years. Were there any other judges in the Northern District of Alabama? Did someone designate Kallon our personal judge, perhaps as a way to ensure that we got cheated in each matter?
Perhaps my imagination is getting away from me, but did Abdul Kallon have a pattern and practice of ruling contrary to law, visiting untold financial, emotional, and employment-related damages to numerous entities and individuals (not just us), while unlawfully favoring other parties? Did someone in authority, perhaps at the U.S. Department of Justice, become aware of Kallon's scams -- especially as they relate to the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal and Southern Company/Alabama Power. Did our cases happen to fall within the web of Kallon's deceit, perhaps providing evidence that Kallon was running a "cheat shop? Perhaps someone in authority advised Kallon to resign from his lifetime appointment and get far away from Alabama? Is that why Kallon, in fact, resigned and wound up in Seattle -- about as far from Alabama scandals as you can get? Did the cheat jobs on our cases play some small role in all of that? Was Kallon told to get out of the state or face potentially painful repercussions (such as prison)?
By the way were the issues in our cases important? They sure were to us, and I think you would find them important, too, should such matters arise in a court of law. To put it simply: Kallon stole Carol's full property rights to her own home, which she had jointly owned (with me) for more than 20 years at the time. Kallon helped cheat Carol out of her job, hurting us financially and damaging her prospects for future employment. And finally, Kallon helped damage our credit report, which can have all kinds of repercussions in your life.
We will have many more details on our experiences with Abdul Kallon in future posts. For now, I can say that Alabama is extremely lucky to be rid of him.
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