COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCBD) – A fourth and final executive tied to the failed V.C. Summer nuclear facility in South Carolina has been sentenced for misconduct. Jeffrey Alan Benjamin, 62, will spend a year and one day in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to causing SCANA, who owned the former South Carolina Electric and Gas, to keep false records regarding the failed nuclear construction project. Benjamin was working as senior vice president for new plants and major projects at the Westinghouse Electric Company, and according to evidence presented in court, directly supervised all new nuclear projects worldwide – including during the V.C. Summer project. The U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina said evidence determined that Benjamin’s failures to provide “truthful information to SCANA enabled SCANA executives to deceive shareholders, regulators, and ratepayers” regarding the schedule of costs for the project. When confronted with information that the project was delayed in 2016, and that nearly $2.2 billion in federal tax credits were at risk, SCANA executives withheld that information from regulators to keep the project going. The U.S. Attorney’s office said their false and misleading statements allowed the company to receive and retain rate increases that were imposed on its rate-paying customers. Benjamin is the fourth and latest to be sentenced as part of the years-long investigation. Previous convictions included Kevin B. Marsh, former SCANA Corporation chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors, Stephen Byrne, former executive vice president of SCANA and former chief operating officer of South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, and Carl Churchman, former Westinghouse Electric Corporation vice president and the project director of the V.C. Summer Nuclear project. An agreement was announced in 2021 securing Westinghouse’s cooperation in the V.C. Summer criminal investigation and payment of $21.25 million was issued for low-income ratepayer relief. “The defendants in this case did not simply make a corporate error. They intentionally misled, and their dishonesty in the V.C. Summer project caused a great deal of harm to the people of South Carolina,” said U.S. Attorney Adair Ford Boroughs for the District of South Carolina. “This sentence sends a clear message of deterrence to executives and corporations who believe they are above the law: deceit and fraud will be met with accountability and justice.” U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger sentenced Benjamin to 12 months and one day in federal prison followed by a two-year term of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. This case was investigated by U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI Columbia Field Office, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.