, sued [OpenAI](https://baxtel.com/data-centers/openai) and county officials on Nov. 6 over a 3.2-gigawatt data cen...](https://cdn.baxtel.com/data-center/georgia-residents-file-rico-suit-against-openai-over-3-2gw-project-camellia/logo/large_georgia-residents-file-rico-suit-against-openai-over-3-2gw-project-camellia-featured.jpg){kind=logo}
Three residents of Effingham County, Georgia, sued OpenAI and county officials on Nov. 6 over a 3.2-gigawatt data center project. The 44-page complaint, filed in Effingham County State Court, seeks compensatory and punitive damages and three times actual damages from the defendants named in its rack
Featured: Wide aerial landscape view of the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub property in Effingham County.eteering count (Effingham Herald).
The defendants include OpenAI, its affiliate Octans GA LLC, the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority, Savannah Industrial Development LLC, six county commissioners, County Manager Tim Callanan and authority CEO Brandt Herndon. The complaint lists 11 counts, including fraudulent concealment, fraud, civil conspiracy and violation of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
OpenAI develops the campus through Octans GA LLC. The development authority owned the land and negotiated the incentive package. Savannah Industrial Development signed the deed conveying the property to Octans as the authority's agent under a power of attorney recorded in 2016, according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs are Dr. Michelle Finch-Mincey, Lehman Mincey Jr. and Raymond Carver. The complaint says Herndon signed a nondisclosure agreement with OpenAI on Oct. 27, 2025, and that NDAs later went to other officials, including Callanan (WTOC). It says the authority met on July 21 under an agenda that listed only "Project Gateway," went into closed session and voted unanimously for a memorandum of understanding with Octans. A deed for about 1,440 acres was signed July 24 for recited consideration of $10.
The complaint also challenges Ordinance 2026-352, adopted Aug. 4. The suit says commissioners presented the ordinance as a technical correction and changed the treatment of data centers and industrial land without the two public hearings required by state law and the county code.
OpenAI's Project Camellia covers four buildings of about 4.4 million square feet on roughly 1,440 acres at the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub near Rincon. WTOC reported the cost at about $20 billion, while DCD described a $30 billion project (DCD). Baxtel lists the campus at 3,200 megawatts across four planned buildings phased from late 2028 to mid-2032, and tracks 351 data center facilities in Georgia run by 108 providers.
"This case is not an attack against the use of AI or AI in general, it is an attack on the ways these defendants acted to procure the data center in Effingham County," said Ben Michaud, an attorney for the plaintiffs. "Government power should come from the consent of the people, not multi-billion-dollar corporations having secret meetings with public officials," said Greg Gilluly, another attorney for the plaintiffs.
The county declined to discuss the case. "The Effingham County Board of Commissioners does not comment on ongoing or pending litigation," a spokesperson told WTOC.
The authority said it is aware of the lawsuit but has not been served and will address it through the legal process. OpenAI did not respond to WTOC's request for comment.
The case is the third lawsuit over the project, after a September zoning challenge from the same residents and a separate open meetings suit against the authority. DCD reported that a decision on the project due at a Nov. 4 meeting has been moved to Nov. 19.
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