Residents of Effingham County, Georgia, just filed a RICO lawsuit against their county commissioners, county leaders, and OpenAI and its affiliates, alleging that they committed various offenses in a conspiracy to get OpenAI’s “Project Camellia” approved. According to the Effingham Herald, the plaintiffs — Dr. Michelle Finch-Mincey, Lehman Mincey Jr., and Raymond Carver — are seeking civil damages, saying that the project has harmed their property values and even pointing out that purchase offers for nearby residential properties have dropped or been withdrawn since the data center was announced.

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The lawsuit names all Effingham County Commissioners — Chairperson Damon Rahn, Forrest Floyd, Roger Burdette, Jamie DeLoach, Elizabeth Helmly, and Phil Kieffer — as defendants, alongside County Manager Tim Callanan, Effingham County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) CEO Brandt Herndon, the IDA itself, OpenAI, Octans GA LLC, the entity operating the data center on behalf of OpenAI, and Savannah Industrial Development LLC, the agency involved in the sale of IDA property to Octans and OpenAI.

It’s alleged that the defendants committed fraud and concealment through non-disclosure agreements and misleading public statements so that residents remain unaware of the nature of the projects for as long as possible, and that there was a civil conspiracy “to advance Project Camellia through confidential negotiations and closed-door decisions.” They also claimed that the parties engaged in improper land transactions, zoning violations, and civil racketeering.w

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