Holtec’s corporate shell game, and why it is unfit to handle nuclear waste at Indian Point

Today, Public Watchdogs joined scores of other prominent advocacy groups, nuclear safety experts, and concerned citizens, to urge the New York Public Service Commission to deny a bid by Holtec to gain ownership of roughly three million pounds of deadly nuclear waste at Indian Point.  Many of the speakers mentioned Holtec’s history of bribery.    Others mentioned the criminal charges related to false statements made by Holtec to the State of New Jersey.

If  the Commission approves this plan, Holtec will handle the entire decommissioning process.  Holtec will remove 3,348  sizzling hot “spent” nuclear fuel assemblies, which are deadly for 250,000 years, from the spent fuel pools.  Holtec will load the assemblies into 125 of Holtec’s patented thin-walled (half-inch thick) stainless steel containers with a 25-year warranty.

Public Watchdogs’ brief  written comments to the Commission did not focus on Holtec’s vast network of  “shell” companies, so we are covering them here.

What is a shell company? Why does it matter?

This video explains how shell companies work (just imagine that the pea is your money).   The idea behind a shell company is to protect and preserve corporate profits.   Often, the “shells” are essentially empty companies with no furniture, staff or inventory.  The sole purpose of the shell corporation is to accept payments for services, which are then funneled away to the owners, who are often anonymous.  In some instances, the  shell company may actually hire employees, but such activities are usually done on a temporary basis, because shell companies are designed to be bankrupted or easily dissolved.

Shell corporations are useful for minimizing risks, debts, lawsuits, and legal responsibilities.

Public Watchdogs researched Holtec shell companies in New Jersey, Delaware, and Florida.  We located more than 30 corporations operated by Holtec, but this list is by no means complete.

Entergy: Another corporation with a complex network of corporate shells

Can you find the pea in this description?   

The following description is from page two of a filing before the State of New York Public Service Commission by Entergy, the owners of the Indian Point nuclear power plant.  It describes how eight shell companies, two of which are not named, will work together to sell Indian Point’s nuclear waste (and liability) to another Holtec shell company.  Note that there are eight Entergy shell companies ( in green). 

“Entergy will undertake a series of transfers under an internal reorganization designed to facilitate the Holtec Transaction that will be initiated with ENIP2’s and ENIP3’s transfer of the IPEC Facility together with their other assets and liabilities to two limited liability companies whose membership interests will ultimately be owned by another limited liability holding company, Merchant Properties, LLC. All entities involved in this internal reorganization are indirect, wholly-owned subsidiaries of ENIP2 and ENIP3’s ultimate parent, Entergy Corporation (collectively, the “Internal Transfers”). Second, shortly following the internal reorganization, NAMCo will acquire the membership interests of Merchant Properties, LLC, the limited liability holding company ultimately owned by Entergy Corporation, resulting in the indirect upstream transfer of the membership interests in the entities that own the IPEC Facility to NAMCo pursuant to the terms of the MIPA (individually, the “Holtec Transaction” and together with the Internal Transfers, the “Transfers”). The parties are targeting to complete the Internal Transfers and close the Holtec Transaction in May, 2021.” – Source Document here, page 2 of 261

Feeling confused?  Don’t feel bad.  Confusion is the the objective when you are playing the corporate shell game.

Related:  New York Attorney General, Letitia James’s  Petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.