January 30, 2026
A federal judge granted preliminary approval to a $34 million settlement of an investor lawsuit accusing Deloitte of issuing misleading audit reports about the progress of a massive South Carolina nuclear energy expansion, ignoring red flags about fraudulent numbers that would doom the project.
Reached on behalf of shareholders in SCANA Corp., a regulated South Carolina utility that was sold in 2018 after exposure of the fraud left the company in shambles, the settlement marked a rare victory for investors seeking to hold independent auditors accountable under the heightened liability standards of federal securities laws. If approved, the settlement will be among the top five auditor settlements of the last decade. Deloitte had been SCANA’s auditor for more than 70 years.
Cohen Milstein represents lead plaintiff International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 Pension Fund as sole lead counsel in the lawsuit, which stems from a planned $9 billion expansion of the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, South Carolina. In what is considered the largest fraud in South Carolina history, SCANA and its corporate executives deceived shareholders, regulators, and ratepayers about mounting costs and delays that disqualified the company from vital tax credits. In issuing false and misleading clean audit reports on SCANA’s financial statements, investors alleged, Deloitte breached its duties as SCANA’s independent auditor under Sections 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5.
Specifically, investors claimed that Deloitte failed in its role of gatekeeper, deceiving investors about SCANA’s accounting for the project. Investors claimed that Deloitte gave unqualified, “clean” audit reports on SCANA’s financial statements and internal controls over financial reporting, that misled investors into believing that SCANA would complete the nuclear project in time to obtain $1.4 billion in nuclear tax credits. Deloitte allegedly did so despite possessing voluminous evidence that SCANA could not possibly achieve this goal. Investors also alleged that had it not been for Deloitte’s signoff on SCANA’s materially false and misleading financial statements, Lead Plaintiff and the Class would not have purchased their SCANA shares, and certainly not at the prices they paid.
The original suit was filed in 2019, and is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina on behalf of investors who acquired SCANA stock between February 26, 2016 through December 20, 2017, and were damaged by the alleged fraud. In November 2020, the Court denied Deloitte’s motion to dismiss, holding that “even under the heightened standards applicable” in auditor cases, the shareholders plausibly alleged that Deloitte “helped conceal the fraud from investors by blessing” SCANA’s financial statements, which misrepresented the true status of the project and “continued to reassure investors that the project would be completed in time, even though they knew this information was false.”
The Court certified the class in November 2024 and cross-motions for summary judgment were pending at the time the settlement was reached. The case is International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 Pension Fund et al. v. Deloitte & Touche, LLP and Deloitte LLP, 19cv03304 (D.S.C.).