Plans to construct two coal-fired power plants in middle Georgia were dealt a blow on Thursday as Dwight Brown, CEO of Cobb EMC- one of the nations largest Electrical Members Corporations (EMC)- was indicted on 31 accounts of corporate theft by taking, racketeering, and making false statements to government entities. The charges come after 2 years of citizen activism and litigation, and help highlight corrupt business practices that continue within the organization today as they proceed with plans to construct 2 coal fired power plants in Georgia, costing $4.2 billion.
Cobb EMC is the lead financial and logistical supporter of a coalition of electrical corporations called Power4Georgians LLC, attempting to build two 850MW coal plants in middle Georgia, despite the fact that no new coal plants have been started in the United States in the last two years. In state filings Brown himself is identified as the lead “organizer” of the consortium, and is the lead signature in the plants’ permit applications.
The detailed indictment of CEO Dwight Brown lays out criminal business practices in which Brown and 5 other board members of the not-for-profit EMC, created a for-profit business called Cobb Energy, and used EMC membership funds to piggy-bank multi-million dollar salary and compensation packages for Brown and Board. Brown and Company, after transferring all not-for-profit assets to the for-profit Cobb Energy, charged the 200,000 person EMC membership an 11% mark-up on services that the EMC previously rendered, used EMC membership data to sell SCANA natural gas services to make huge profits for Cobb Energy, and granted Brown a $3 million personal loan- which was soon after forgiven- used to purchased preferred stocks in Cobb Energy. All of this while Brown lied to and deceived the EMC membership charged with democratically operating and affectively owning the not-for-profit entity.
Yea…Shady (at best) right?
But it only gets better.
