November 19, 2025
Ranked among the top 5 auditor settlements in the last decade.
Investors alleged that Deloitte aided SCANA in deceiving the public and regulators by concealing financial fraud for its South Carolina nuclear energy expansion project.
NEW YORK, N.Y. – A federal judge in South Carolina granted preliminary approval of a $34 million cash settlement between International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 Pension Fund and Deloitte & Touche LLP to resolve a certified securities fraud class action against the accounting giant, ranking it among the top 5 auditor settlements in the last decade.
Originally filed in 2019, IBEW Local 98 Pension Fund v. Deloitte alleged Deloitte helped SCANA Corporation commit massive financial fraud related to the multi-billion-dollar expansion of the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station in South Carolina. It follows on the heels of In re SCANA Corporation Securities Litigation, bringing total shareholder recoveries to $226.5 million in this massive fraud. However, IBEW was the only case to address auditor liability issues.
“This settlement is a significant victory for investors and a testament to their role in holding auditors accountable and safeguarding our capital markets,” said Laura Posner, a partner at Cohen Milstein and court-appointed lead counsel in this matter. “This case also sets an important precedent. Despite the SCANA fraud being widely reported, Deloitte was not originally sued by SCANA investors because there is such a high bar to establishing liability against auditors. It’s rare for auditor cases to withstand motions to dismiss, let alone achieve class certification, and to fully brief summary judgement as we did here. I’m very pleased with the trail we have blazed to hold auditors liable and the recovery we have obtained for investors and look forward to presenting to the court why the settlement should receive final approval.”
Shareholders alleged that Deloitte breached its duties as SCANA’s external, independent auditor and trusted gatekeeper by deceiving investors, regulators, and the public about SCANA’s accounting for, and expected completion of, the nuclear energy expansion project. Shareholders further alleged that despite possessing voluminous evidence that SCANA could not achieve its goals, including findings from a whistleblower investigation, Deloitte gave unqualified, “clean” audit reports on SCANA’s financial statements and internal control over financial reporting. As a result, shareholders alleged, Deloitte misled investors into believing that SCANA would complete the Nuclear Project in time to obtain $1.4 billion in nuclear tax credits.
Over the course of more than five years of litigation, the plaintiffs achieved several important court rulings. In 2020, the court denied Deloitte’s motion to dismiss, stating among other things that shareholders plausibly alleged that Deloitte helped conceal the fraud from investors and did so in a manner that amounted “to basically no audit at all.” In November 2024, the court certified the class.
Heralded as one of the country’s most promising nuclear expansion projects, the $9 billion Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Power Expansion Project was abandoned by SCANA in 2017. It soon became clear that the abandonment was due to SCANA’s deliberately or recklessly concealing cost overruns and construction delays in what turned into the largest fraud in South Carolina history.
The case is styled: IBEW Local 98 Pension Fund v. Deloitte, Case No. 3:19-cv-03304, U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina.
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