Cobb EMC, a nonprofit electric cooperative based in Marietta, gave its chief executive officer Dwight Brown a $1.5 million interest-free loan in 2002.

And according to new claims in a lawsuit, that was just the half of it.

The lawsuit says Brown got $1.5 million — for a total of $3 million in interest-free loans — from Cobb Energy, the for-profit co-op's affiliate that Brown also heads.

Cobb Energy has a 40-year contract to operate Cobb EMC.

The Brown loan was one of a number of new claims contained in an amended complaint against the co-op and its management.

The initial lawsuit was filed in September by a Marietta father and son, Sims and John Maddox. It claimed the ties between the co-op and Cobb Energy damaged the utility and its member-owners, and it accused Brown and other officials of siphoning off co-op funds to benefit the for-profit. Brown and the co-op have asked a Cobb County judge to dismiss the suit, saying it is legally flawed.

A second group of plaintiffs, including former Cobb County commissioner Butch Thompson and businessman Bo Pounds, filed another suit last week.

Attorney Adam Webb, who is representing the Maddoxes, would not disclose the source of the new information in his complaint.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in August that the co-op had loaned an unnamed executive $1.5 million in 2002, based on tax disclosures.

The disclosure described the loan as a "portion" of a deferred compensation and retirement package.

Full annual reports that the co-op provided to the AJC this month say the loan was for Brown. They also lend credence to the $3 million total.

They say Cobb EMC and Cobb Energy have been splitting the cost of Brown's compensation package — including the interest free-loan — evenly since 2002, suggesting that Brown received a combined $3 million.

The AJC does not have access to Cobb Energy's financial reports. However reports for the co-op, as well as the co-op's tax forms, show its $1.5 million portion of the loan.

The outstanding balance of the co-op's portion drops steadily after 2002. It's unclear whether it's being paid back or written down.

The full reports are more detailed than those routinely circulated to the co-op's member-owners. Cobb EMC provided 14 years of such detailed reports on Oct. 19, at the AJC's request.

The second group of plaintiffs filed their case three days later. Since then, the co-op has stopped responding to questions. A spokeswoman for the co-op wrote in an e-mail Friday that "we will continue to correct misinformation directly with the membership" instead.

The loan is part of a six-year contract for Brown, approved "in recognition of, and with the desire to continue, the success of the last seven years in the growing complexity of the energy business," the report says.

Boards of the co-op and Cobb Energy both approved the new contract, the report says.

They secured the services of Brown through 2008, it says, through a "combination of penalties and rewards including retirement and death benefits contained in an interest free loan."

"Each of the corporations shared equally in the cost of this contract."

The two also seem to be splitting Brown's salary, according to the documents.

The co-op's tax form says Cobb EMC paid Brown $335,000 in 2005. A Cobb Energy match would have brought his compensation to $670,000.

The lawsuits against Cobb EMC and Cobb Energy followed an August AJC story on ties between the two companies and their lack of transparency, as the once-rural non profit cooperative transformed itself into an aggressive energy conglomerate.

The litigation also followed an angry co-op membership meeting in September.

Brown refused to answer most member questions about Cobb Energy at that meeting, including a question about his Cobb Energy compensation.

Earlier this month, the co-op said it planned to begin posting the full version of its annual reports on its Web site within the next several weeks.