A former SCANA executive avoided going to prison when a federal judge reduced his sentence last week from an active sentence to home confinement, the South Carolina Daily Gazette news website reported.
Stephen Byrne was spared time in prison for his role in the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project. He now will serve 15 months of home detention as part of a three-year probation sentence instead of the 15-month prison term he was sentenced to in 2023.
He must still pay a $200,000 fine and $1 million restitution as part of his punishment.
Byrne, SCANA’s chief operating officer during the nuclear project’s collapse, pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. He admitted to lying to state regulators in 2016 about the project’s progress; he knew that it was over budget and would be delayed.
In a Jan. 2 order, federal District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis cited Byrne’s cooperation with investigators, including in interviews and preparations to testify at other defendants’ trials, the Daily Gazette reported. His assistance considerably shortened the investigation.
“Byrne has been forthright, level-headed, and candid,” prosecutors wrote in their motion to reduce his sentence.