Town Probe Over; SEC, DOJ Investigations of Southern Company Escalate; NRC Digs Into Svinicki
The correspondence we received recently from the Office of Professional Responsibility at the U.S. Department of Justice was clear: the probe of disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town is over.
“We are taking no further action,” they wrote, which reveals that an alleged deal was cut in 2020.
The quid pro quo: the abrupt resignation of Town meant he wouldn’t be investigated or prosecuted for criminal misconduct, especially now since he is no longer a U.S. Attorney
No further action, indeed.
Even though Town is off the hook, insiders claim that the criminal probe of Southern Company’s criminal enterprise is escalating, now that former Southern Company Chairman and CEO Tom Fanning has retired.
Besides looking at the Kemper Plant debacle and Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant cost overruns, criminal investigators at the U.S. Department of Justice are apparently looking deeply at the alleged money laundering through third-party vendors tied to Southern Company and its subsidiaries, including embattled political consultant “Sloppy Joe” Perkins.
Perkins stupidly outlined a criminal enterprise last year where over $50 million was funneled through 18 different tax-exempt entities.
The criminal investigation complements an ongoing civil investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that is looking at the multiple, no-invoice-needed, multi-million-dollar secret contracts with Perkins and his affiliated entities.
The U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission is looking at any potential misappropriate and alleged illegal communications between former NRC Chair Kristine L. Svinicki, now a member of the Southern Company Board of Directors, and the NRC staff or Commissioners in June and July of 2022.
Sources claim that Svinicki is barred for life from contacting the NRC about Southern Company since she voted for Southern Company’s Vogtle permits as NRC Chair, but may have communicated through NRC back channels last year.
