Company: SOJE
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000092122-25-000018
Chunk: 1811

Company: SOUTHERN CO
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 8
Chunk 1811
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 and Mississippi PowerIn 2010, the DOE, through a cooperative agreement with SCS, agreed to fund $270 million of the Kemper County energy facility through the grants awarded to the project by the DOE under the Clean Coal Power Initiative Round 2. In 2016, additional DOE grants in the amount of $137 million were awarded to the Kemper County energy facility. In 2018, Mississippi Power filed with the DOE its request for property closeout certification under the contract related to the $387 million of total grants received. In 2020, Mississippi Power and Southern Company executed an agreement with the DOE completing Mississippi Power's request, which enabled Mississippi Power to proceed with full dismantlement of the abandoned gasifier-related assets and site restoration activities. In connection with the DOE closeout discussions, in 2019, the Civil Division of the Department of Justice informed Southern Company and Mississippi Power of a civil investigation related to the DOE grants. In August 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia unsealed a civil action in which defendants Southern Company, SCS, and Mississippi 

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Power are alleged to have violated certain provisions of the False Claims Act by fraudulently inducing the DOE to disburse funds pursuant to the grants. The federal government declined to intervene in the action. In October 2023, the plaintiff, a former SCS employee, filed an amended complaint, again alleging certain violations of the False Claims Act. The plaintiff seeks to recover all damages incurred personally and on behalf of the federal government caused by the defendants' alleged violations, as well as treble damages and attorneys' fees, among other relief. On February 2, 2024, the defendants moved to dismiss the amended complaint. On August 28, 2024, the court granted the defendants' motion in part and denied it in part, dismissing the plaintiff's False Claims Act count along with its accompanying treble damages and attorneys' fees but allowing the employment retaliation claim to proceed. The plaintiff requested interlocutory appeal of the court's decision on October 4, 2024. On October 14, 2024, the defendants asserted counterclaims for conversion and misappropriation of trade secrets. On November 20, 2024, the defendants filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings on the plaintiff's employment retaliation claim. On December