Utility executives take note: Lying repeatedly to regulators and investors may be extremely hazardous to your personal checkbooks.

It’s the latest development in the continuing, tawdry story of the now-cancelled V.C. Summer nuclear power plant in South Carolina. The federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) and two of its former executives, plus its parent corporation SCANA. They are all accused of deceiving investors and regulators about the progress of the plant’s construction. Dominion Energy, the Virginia-based utility which bought SCE&G, is also named in the suit.

The SEC’s lawsuit asserts the defendants’ false claim that the nuclear plant would be finished by the end of 2020 resulted in SCE&G getting $1.4 billion in federal tax credits to which it was not entitled. The sued execs reportedly pressured regulators to withhold reporting that the now-cancelled plant would not actually be finished in time. THe execs personally took home millions from the utility the year the project collapsed.

Among the other notable factors about this spectacular example of nuclear failure: “More than $9 billion was spent on the reactors, which never generated a watt of power before they were abandoned in the summer of 2017. State-owned utility Santee Cooper had a minority stake in the project and ended up $4 billion in debt.”

Criminal charges have not been filed … yet.