Camden based firm Holtec International will pay a $5 million fine to the state in exchange for avoiding criminal charges over a tax credit dispute according to the Attorney General's office Holtec received one of the state's biggest tax incentives in history to relocate to Camden but authorities accused the nuclear energy company of falsifying documents in 2018 to cheat the program as part of the deal Holtec will retain an independent monitor to review the company's future applications for state benefits haltech denies any wrongdoing contributing writer Jeff Pillets reports details from the investigation closely mirror allegations that have followed the company for years and he joins me now Jeff Pillets good to see you excellent reporting on this so let's just take a step back and tell us what Holtec is being charged with well they've made an agreement they're not really being charged with anything what they they've made an agreement to not to be charged so in exchange for a fine to avoid criminal prosecution ution and monitoring for 3 years as you mentioned so basically they're being charged with they're being accused of violating of manipulating their application for state tax breaks what did they say on the application uh that the Attorney General's office claims was misrepresented they basically conflated their dealings with a with a partner who um that they were they were joining with to do a project with in the Pittsburgh area and uh they misrepresented their their financial input from this other company in a way that would inflate their revenues or inflate what they had to to qualify for a larger tax break and in essence they qualified for a tax break that was twice as big as what they should have gotten they had received the largest tax break in New Jersey history $260 million in 2014 and there was some problems with their application on that and Miss they failed to inform the state that they had been debarred from federal work at the Tennessee Valley Authority 2010 so that got them in trouble with that they event they sued the state they eventually won but basically on technical reasons that the Ed didn't really didn't really U police their the application as well as they should have so they plan to blame on the state but they've had other issues as well with uh ethical issues with with their applications and with their representations they've made on the financial side what is haltech saying in response to this they're saying that they've been victimized by the state they're saying they admitted no wrongdoing they're saying that they continue to do good work on the Forefront of clean energy and that uh this is they just basically agreed to this settlement they're calling it instead of a criminal prosecution agreement uh non-prosecution agreement they're agreeing to this to avoid lengthy prosecution so what are the wider implications here because as you mentioned there have been sort of allegations that have dogged The Firm for years of course at the time that these tax incentives were given out there were groups especially Progressive of groups that spoke out about the amount of money that the state was giving and I'll say what they called a lack of transparency or oversight over the program so what's the wider implication here I think the wider implication is that this company is going is going to be one of many that are looking for public subsidies as we sort of re-expand our commitment to nuclear power in in coming years as we try to re-expand and uh they're on the Forefront of that they've got technology in several areas that is being is being used not just in New Jersey but in other states in California and New Mexico Michigan New York and um their role is going to increase but they're going to have to do it with public subsidies and there's going to be increasing pressure on the public subsidies to go to a company that's has is of good character so that's that's the wider implication as far as I can see it these are questions and groups around the country have had these questions and continue to ask the NRC questions about holtek behavior and Holtec character and we know you're going to stay on that uh reporting and we will be checking back with you Jeff Pillets thank you so much thank you Brianna