Co-conspirators in the $10 billion SCANA nuclear coverup must feel uneasy.

Acting US Attorney for South Carolina Rhett DeHart promised that more conspirators will be uncovered.

Former Westinghouse nuclear contractor Carl Dean Churchman, 70, pled guilty to one count of lying to FBI agent Aaron Hawkins before federal Judge Mary Geiger Lewis last week.

Federal prosecutors said Churchman admitted lying to fool investors, ratepayers, lawmakers, regulators and utility executives that the failing project would succeed. Churchman was Westinghouse Electric’s chief contractor responsible for construction of the SCANA-Santee Cooper twin nuclear reactors.

Churchman, now living in Utah, is the 3rd conspirator to plead guilty in the 4-year FBI investigation.

He faces 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

FBI investigators have found that top SCANA officials engaged in a criminal conspiracy to:

• Hide cost overruns, explain long delays and deny eventual failure.

• Convince the SC Public Service Commission to continue granting a dozen rate increases.

Those increases cost ratepayers $2 billion on a fiasco that may never produce a kilowatt of electricity.

Billions of dollars worth of nuclear equipment sit abandoned 45 minutes from SCANA’s former headquarters in Lexington County.

Churchman’s plea agreement requires him to give prosecutors information they can use to convict other conspirators.

The agreement promises prosecutors will try to get a lighter sentence if he helps substantially.

As project manager, Churchman was aware that Westinghouse executives were lying to SCANA officials, federal prosecutor Winston Holliday told the court.

If SCANA finished the reactors by Dec. 31, 2020, it would qualify for $1.4 billion in tax credits, Holliday said.

In early 2017, Churchman knew the project would miss the deadline but conspired to report optimistic but false dates to SCANA.

SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh and his chief operating officer Stephen Byrne have already pled guilty in the federal fraud investigation.

Marsh and Byrne have been cooperating by giving FBI agents information on other conspirators.

“There is more to come and Mr. Churchman is a key witness,” prosecutor Holliday told the judge.

DeHart said “We are committed to holding all individual and corporate wrongdoers accountable.”