S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson has referred S.C. lieutenant governor Ken Ard’s ethics case to a statewide grand jury – a sign that the Florence “Republican in Name Only” could be on the verge of being indicted.
“I have reviewed the information with a team of prosecutors in my office, and have concluded that this case is properly within the investigative jurisdiction of the state grand jury,” Wilson said in a statement. “That process will begin immediately.”
In the event Ard is indicted on criminal charges he would be automatically suspended from office pending the outcome of the case. He would also become the third GOP statewide official in the last seven years to be indicted.
In 2004, S.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Charlie Sharpe was indicted on corruption charges related to his association with a cockfighting ring. In 2007, S.C. Treasurer Thomas Ravenel was indicted on drug charges. Both elected officials resigned prior to being convicted.
Ard was busted in January by The (Columbia, S.C.) Free Times spending more than $20,000 on an array of dubious expenses – including expensive meals, clothing, lavish hotel rooms, computer equipment and a family vacation. In an interview with Free Times reporter Corey Hutchins, Ard basically admitted his guilt.
“I’ve got a vast amount of my personal wealth tied up in this campaign and I’m just trying to recoup as much of that as I can,” Ard told Hutchins.
After The Free Times story was published, Ard backed off of that statement. In fact, he told the Associated Press that he had “no idea” where Hutchins got the quote. Days later, however, Hutchins released an audiotape of his interview with Ard that confirmed the accuracy of the statement.
That was just the beginning of Ard’s lies …
An SEC report released earlier this month showed that Ard’s illegal use of campaign funds for personal purposes was much more flagrant than originally suspected. For example, Ard claimed that he purchased “computers and other office equipment” at Best Buy, but investigators discovered that he actually purchased a Playstation, a 46-inch Sony Flat Screen Television, an iPod Touch 8G and various other personal electronic items.
The report also revealed that Ard repeatedly provided false information to investigators – fabricating an official “economic development” pretense for a family vacation to Washington, D.C. and concocting a story about buying his wife an inaugural gown.
S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson launched a preliminary investigation into Ard’s campaign finance violations shortly after the SEC report was released – and after Ard paid $60,000 in penalties for committing more than 100 campaign finance violations.
Wilson has been mum about his investigation (understandably) of Ard, but a source close to his office told FITS earlier this month that the lieutenant governor may have perjured himself by submitting fraudulent information to the S.C. State Ethics Commission (SEC) and then lying about it.
Obviously Ard isn’t the only South Carolina “Republican” facing campaign finance problems. Newly-elected S.C. Ways and Means Chairman Brian White has a similar issue – while S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley has habitually refused to disclose the occupation of the vast majority of her donors as required by state law.
***
By Shlomo July 20, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Ruh roh . . . looks like the state grand jury is gonna get an Ard-on.
By Mike Traynor July 20, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Shlomo:
LMAO. Nice word play.
By BigT July 20, 2011 at 4:57 pm
The government telling people how to spend money…then trying to imprison them, if they don’t Spend they way the Government tells them to…
Seems kinda Totalitarian to me..
Yet Obama, architect of a horrible economic collapse, spends millions and millions of the Taxpayers’ money to take his corrupt cronies on trips all over the world…and that’s OK…
What a strange place this country has become…
By Cid July 20, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Alas poor Kenneth
We hardly knew ye!
By Nikki's Twitter July 20, 2011 at 6:29 pm
I am willing to bet my reputation that Ken is completely innocent of everything he has ever done. And I will personally represent him in court if indicted. That is what a great Governor is for.
By It is what it is July 20, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Dear God, please let that idiot, megaloMANical, egocentric, twit of a Governot be the next shoe (or undergarment) to fall.
By tomstickler July 20, 2011 at 6:31 pm
“Obama, architect of a horrible economic collapse”
Big T now fully qualifies as an historical revisionist. The horrible economic collapse was fully on the skids before Obama was sworn in, and would have been much worse in the absence of Obama’s actions to stimulate the economy.
Since no good deed goes unpunished, Obama is blamed by the Republicans for the record deficits that have resulted, and for being too limited in his stimulus by Keynesian economists and Progressives.
Maybe John McCain can explain how he would have handled the problem the next time he is on the Sunday talk shows.
By Bill July 20, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Wilson can be trusted for one thing and that is to be a simple minded politician. With his finger in the wind, he realizes no one cares about Ken Ard. Wilson thinks he will look like an actual adult if he grows a pair and does as he should.
Question is, how will he work his kids, wife, military service into the grand jury? Wilson has whored them all out for political reasons and I see no reason to stop now.
By BigT July 20, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Tomlicker…you are correct: When the democrat Congress took control after the ’06 (Mark Foley fraud) election…the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent…
After just one year under a liberal House, the unemployment rate was up to 5.8 percent, and has gone up evry year since… Gas prices skyrocketed, too..on the ideology of No Drill…which also damaged the economy…
So the democrats actually began the collapse in ’06…Obama only exacerbated it in the years after…
Thank you for clarifying…
By Cid July 20, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Ah come on T ,eta have some more
“clarifying”
When Clinton left office in 2001 the budget was balanced and the unemployment rate was alittle over 3%
After George W gave all your millionaire buddies tax cuts to “create jobs”
The jobless rate began to rise
The budget went into deficit
And the gap between rich and poor widened to the greatest gap in history
Then George W cheered on by you and you ilk started a war that the refused to pay for
Then he started another one
And you Republicans could have cared LESS about deficits,unemployment or anything else
Of course all this is only in the interest of
” Clarifying”
Sarah Palin Forever Yiheeeeeee!!!”
By Cicero July 20, 2011 at 8:10 pm
“…expensive meals, clothing, lavish hotel rooms, computer equipment and a family vacation. In an interview with Free Times reporter Corey Hutchins, Ard basically admitted his guilt.”
Please post here where I also can get lavish frills unlawfully and without consequences.
What sort of questions would flow from a 9th grade civics class about this behavior?
Shameful greed…
By Say What? July 20, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Lt.Gov.’Tard is toast. South Carolina’s loss is Pamplico’s loss. Good riddance, Jethro.
By scmajor July 20, 2011 at 8:43 pm
y Nikki’s Twitter July 20, 2011 at 6:29 pm
I am willing to bet my reputation that Ken is completely innocent of everything he has ever done. And I will personally represent him (and drive him to court) if indicted. That is what a great Governor is for.
By south mauldin July 20, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Once again Big T has his ass handed to him. Thanks, Cid.
By Shlomo July 20, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Nikki’s Twitter:
“I know Ken will beat these untrue charges with plenty of excitement! In our country, you’re excited until proven guilty. Good luck, Ken!”
By BigT July 20, 2011 at 10:43 pm
Cid backs up my adage that liberals have only Lies, Myths and Fables…
And: Clinton totally IGNORED National Security (what did sandy burglar steal) and that ended up costing Billions and Billions, and countless American Lives…
One other thing: Clinton ain’t gone be on the ballot in 2012…Not unless Hillary decides to kick Obama’s ass in a primary…which is very doable, because he is so bad…and she can honestly say: ‘I told you so’…
By P&C READER July 21, 2011 at 12:51 am
“In all, Ard was charged with 107 ethics violations for breaches, including:
$2,543 he spent on a family vacation to Washington, D.C., a trip Ard said was to meet with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham to discuss economic development. But Graham wasn’t in Washington at the time.
$3,056 Ard spent at Best Buy for a PlayStation 3, a 46-inch Sony flat-screen television, two iPads, an iPod Touch 8G and other gadgets. Ard’s team told investigators that it was for a home office.
$447 for football tickets and a hotel room in Atlanta to watch a University of South Carolina championship game. Ard said he was invited by USC to attend, but the investigation revealed that that wasn’t entirely true. He had been invited by a friend and USC official but the offer was rescinded when the official learned it would violate state lobbying laws.”
$3,056 FOR “PLAYSTATION AND OTHER GADGETS” FOR HIS OFFICIAL COLUMBIA OFFICE?
IN THIS ECONOMY?
PLAYSTATION…
I GIVE UP.
By That Boz Guy @ The Beach July 21, 2011 at 5:52 am
Jeez-a-my-knees, that Will Moredock feller sure don’t like that Pee Dee homeboy Ken Ard too much, over to the Charleston City Paper. That’s funny, though, coz like ol’ BigT on here he sure does love him some Mayor John Rhodes and Brad Dean, and they are part of the corrupt local power elite that sent Ard to Columbia with their man Brant Branham along for the ride to look after their investment.
Like I done sez to ol’ Will, sez I …
Re: “Haley or Ard: Who will be the first to do the perp walk?” — http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/haley-or-ard-who-will-be-the-first-to-do-the-perp-walk/Content?oid=3549593 —
Will, let’s not forget the fact that Ard’s Chief of Staff Brant Branham is a prime target of the ongoing joint FBI-IRS investigation in to corruption connected to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. Branham is basically there to make sure that Ard does the bidding of the ones that put him there — Brad Dean, Allan Clemmons, the Brittains, Mark Kelly, John Rhodes, Debbie Harwell and their cronies in Horry and the Pee Dee. They have been counting on Nikki Haley getting the boot, and having that “in” with her replacement.
It would be inconvenient for you to mention that, of course, because it would reveal too much about the real power structure in Horry, the Pee Dee and the State of SC, which is not all Republicans as you well know. Branham’s father is a powerful Democrat, and the corrupt Chamber as well as the corrupt regimes of MB and Horry, which are closely tied to such wealthy and powerful Dems as the Hollidays, Sally P. Howard, the “Akel’s bunch” and Mayor John Rhodes of Myrtle Beach (who was a Democrat until 15 minutes before filing to run).
Anyone who has delved as deeply into Myrtle Beach politics as you have knows all of this, for sure. The reason why you choose to ignore it goes beyond mere partisanship or ideology, I believe. It has to do with certain interests you support and have always supported in the political and business battles that have raged in the “Banana Republic” for the last couple of decades. Those would be the interests you lauded when they were busy helping their Repub cronies who are nominally in charge here eviscerate the Myrtle Beach economy with their Take Back May anti-biker pogram, in order to drive us into a depression on top of a recession and take advantage of all the “distressed properties.”
All that RICO mess is being probed by the Feds, and what will result from that is a far bigger story than anything to do with Nikki Haley — but it is at least tangentially connected to the fate of the Lt. Goobernor, Ken Ard.
The anti-biker movement was only a wedge issue, and the “Coastal Kickback” was only one facet of the bigger power/land/money grab. Neither Democrats nor Republicans in Horry have clean hands in all that. Nor do all those in other parts of the state who have supported their agenda.
How about you, Will? How about you?
///
By Getemall July 21, 2011 at 7:26 am
@ Bill – I am with you. Wilson drug his feet for personal reasons. Now his party for the second time in his career knows he’s like the wind never knowing what he is going to do. HE DOES WHORE OUT his Family, his prosecutor experience,him military experience and don’t forget his f’ing EAGLE SCOUT!!! IF I hear that same crap again.. I thought I would throw something. The commercials and interviews drove me crazy! I don’t know why he whore’s his out his wife…. She is hard on a man’s eyes. I can even stand to look at her. YUCK.
Next on the chopping block after Haley of course……
By Johnsonvilletub July 21, 2011 at 7:30 am
Now come on guys you know Wilson is a wimp! You know he only did this because he HAD TOO!
By eggaday July 21, 2011 at 7:54 am
GO BOZ!
By Nikki's Twitter July 21, 2011 at 8:25 am
I suggested to Alan that SC will fall without the wonderful, beautiful me. Ken’s head has to roll, for a great me, SC, and America.
By That Boz Guy @ The Beach July 21, 2011 at 8:39 am
Posted to the Sun News Opinion Blog this morning:
///
It looks as though Ken Ard’s time as Lt. Goobernor is drawing to a close.
As of this morning, though, the MBACC still touts Brant Branham’s role in Ard’s office under that local fellow’s photograph. If MBACC/CCU lobbiest Mark Kelley’s Shamrocks were still open, perhaps the resident bookie there would be taking bets on exactly how long they’ll keep that blurb under his pic.
What, y’all don’t remember Shamrocks? Why, that was where MB City Councilman Randal Wallace proudly tells us they counted the ballots in the 2008 SC GOP Presidential Preference Primary. Can everyone on here absorb the full import of that boast? Or perhaps the full domestic, depending on the personal preference of the individual ballot-counters?
Late last week, the Chamber removed the blurbs from the Board photos — http://www.myrtlebeachareachamber.com/about/board_of_directors.html — that told what MBACC committees and councils the various members serve on, or chair. Wonder if that had anything at all to do with a certain key member of their Legislative Policy Council allegedly/reportedly having met with certain highly inquisitive individuals from the Federal gubmint recently … for the SECOND time?
Or did it have more to do with increasing evidence that certain Board members serving on the MBACC Marketing Committee who head up local media outlets with “news” reporting components have been using their “news” reports as extensions of Chamber marketing efforts and/or as a means of public punishment for businesses deemed to be in competition with those efforts in some way?
Meanwhile, of course …
WHERE’S SHEP?
“Ad hoc, ad loc and quid quo pro. So little time, so much to know.”
- Jeremy Hilary Boob, Ph.D, a.k.a. The Nowhere Man, in the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.
Posted by: Boz Martin | July 21, 2011 at 05:30 AM
Read more: http://thesunnews.typepad.com/opinionblog/2011/07/thursday-open-forum-2.html#ixzz1Sk73bA7f
///
By Pussy Galore July 21, 2011 at 9:14 am
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-7-2010/thank-you–south-carolina—the-race-to-replace-disgrace
By Nikki's Twitter July 21, 2011 at 9:59 am
Get excited! It’s a wonderful day to be a beautiful me!
By BigT July 21, 2011 at 10:00 am
Boz: (I’ll be brief in my analysis): I have lived around South Carolina, and I see a lot of people approach their grievances as you attack yours.
You are immersed in local, little urinating spats that you somehow imagine have gargantuan and far-reaching consequences.
When the truth is: Other than you, and two or three other self-absorbed windmill-tilters, no one cares.
Also: MB serves as a sacrifice to the Trashy, so the rest of our state can eat off the fat. Whatever happens bad down there, we figure is necessary so we can profit off of you.
If you don’t like the Filth that surrounds you…get out of there (like I did.) But as a politically just locale, you are surrounded by dolts…and people who live in corruptness and fantasy.
By dog July 21, 2011 at 11:04 am
I don’t mind corrupt politicians who do things I agree with and only stick it to people I oppose. I do mind stupidity.
Ard is a fool. The way to use campaign cash for your own benefit would be to offset personal and business expenses then use personal cash for toys.
Three grand isn’t squat for a legitimate office computer and monitor, for example. A Lenovo W700 laptop can go for 4500 without accessories. Top of the line equipment costs more, and the property could migrate after the campaign since equipment liquidation is expected. Office expenses can include flatscreens and projectors for presentations, furniture (like the trademark Aeron chairs of the dot.com era), janitor service etc.
Lease office space from your own company, and the list goes on. Do everything at normal market rates or below. Enrich your friends. Lease a NASCAR-style campaign RV instead of pissing away money on hotel rooms.
By MajorC July 21, 2011 at 12:11 pm
@Boz and BigT. I’ve always been told you can judge a man by the way he wears his ball cap and where he goes on vacation. My question is why would a mover and a shaker like Will Folks put his hat on backards’ and spend a week in the land of whacky golf and cheesy beach towel shops? Makes no sense to me at all.
My other part-time job is being an “ambassador of love.” I really enjoy reading both of you guys. Boz puts a lot of energy and sweat in his posts and he never bites another poster unless bitten first. And BigT you seem to be a stand up guy with a solid foundation but you have delivered way too many kidney punches to Mr. Boz. Can we agree to disagree without the eye gouging? Maybe we could all meet for a beer at the “Suck, Bang, and Blow” bar at Murrell’s Inlet this weekend. I’m riding my hog over there on Saturday. Col. North might come up from his place at Pawley’s Island and join me.
By Shlomo July 21, 2011 at 2:31 pm
“I’m riding my hog over there on Saturday.”
Awwww, man . . . let your wife spend the day in the shade.
By LITTLE T July 21, 2011 at 2:51 pm
BIG T I don’t think youve ever lived in Myrtle Beach or you would have a greater understanding of what Boz is saying, even though he can be long. You show no understanding of local MB area political figures at all. So it is doubtful you have been here for more than a few days vacation.
By Dispatch from Fort Gono Bambolo July 21, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Boz is so-o-o-o long-winded he makes me think rampant corruption might not be so bad after all.
By BigT July 21, 2011 at 3:30 pm
MajorC: Because I respect you, I’ll tell you this: Boz once told me: My mother sucks c^&*s in Hell.
Kinda hard to agree to disagree w/ one who has no better ability to express himself than that…
As far as MB goes. It’s a lost cause. The people are pro-business in that they want you arrested for helping a visitor change a tire, instead of sending them to a local Rip-off joint garage to sell them $1,000 in cheap tires they DON’T need. I really experinced anger from a local for helping a visitor.
The Grand Strand is filled w/ too much Greed, Immorality and politically-vapid idiots. I gave up on it a long time ago…They are useful idiots…but it’s hard to take their input very seriously…
PS: Tracy Edge (Golden Boy of Burroughs and Chapin) is the poster child for Good ol’ Boy Politics…And his personal life pretty
much epitomizes Grand Strand values.
By That Boz Guy @ The Beach July 21, 2011 at 3:40 pm
////
Author: Dispatch from Fort Gono Bambolo
Comment:
Boz is so-o-o-o long-winded he makes me think rampant corruption might not be so bad after all.
///
STEALING THIS ONE!!!!
By That Boz Guy @ The Beach July 21, 2011 at 3:43 pm
BigT, I gotta admit I went overboard on that one. The mother thing. But it was a film reference. The Exorcist, of course. I did not mean it leterally, it was just an over-the-top insult. In that flick, the demon was playing “the dozens”, unilaterally, with the priest. or maybe not unilaterally, since what the priest was saying to him was just as much of an abomination from his point of view.
No excuse, though.
I apologize, sincerely, for that remark.
By Shlomo July 21, 2011 at 4:01 pm
STEALING THIS ONE!!!!
Glad you liked it.
Steal from the witty and give to the dull . . . like MajorC — is what I always say.
By Zobro July 21, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Heres a clue: Ard’s campaign manager was arrested the day after the elections!
Honestly. In Politics…. In SC…. In SC politics…they actually ARRESTED somebody for breaking a law!!! It’s like…in 1940′s Germany if somebody got arrested for being too racist!
That should pretty much either be the clue that Cahally and his cohort, including Ard, was getting too carried away…or they were getting power checked.
Looking around the web-scape at other 2010 campaigns in the Cahali-verse, it’s pretty clear the neutron bomb had left only the sleazy alive.
One of the most ironic twists, other than the Ard-times ahead, was District 26: Cahally goes down doing dirt work for a kid running w/charges against him (I’ll smack your grandma) AND now D26 is redistricted to York.
It makes you wonder, will the sleaz-a-trons learn anything? Anybody ever hear of fate?
By BigT July 21, 2011 at 4:24 pm
Apology accepted Boz: and I’ll lay off the criticism…
I actually moved from NMB because it had become such a Cesspool. House prices were 3 times value, and every schlub was trying to con you into crashing yourself financially for life, so they could upgarde their Denali or pay off the bookie. The Beach has a lot of Natural beauty…and I think the Housing Crash likley cleaned out a lot of the get-rich vermin, thank goodness.
I still don’t like Edge because of the McCain connectuon…but you may be right about Rhodes.
By LITTLE T July 21, 2011 at 6:21 pm
So you don’t like someone Big T because they suppotyrd the GOP nominee against Obama. Thats very shallow. A lot of republicans whether elected or nit supported McCain against Obama. Do you hate all of them too?
By LITTLE T July 21, 2011 at 6:24 pm
And Edge didn’t do anything wrong, he was the victim there Mr T. Pay attention!
By MajorC July 21, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Excellent Boz and Big T !
By MajorC July 21, 2011 at 7:20 pm
Shlomo suffers from the hallucination that he is Shlomo. There is no cure for a disease of that magnitude.
When Shlomo was a young man he shot an arrow into the air and it stuck!
Shlomo, your posts remind me of Nolan Ryan’s pitching. His pitching got much better once he figured out how to straighten his curve ball. Cheers, my friend.
By LITTLE T July 21, 2011 at 7:35 pm
Nolan Ryan was ten times better at 40 than he was at 27. Loved watching him.
By Dom Perignon July 21, 2011 at 7:56 pm
“I’m riding my hog over there on Saturday.”
Awwww, man . . . let your wife spend the day in the shade.
By Dom Perignon July 21, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Post of the day.
By That Boz Guy @ The Beach July 21, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Yeah, BigT, I do like Tracy, and I don’t try to hide it. I say that even though I still have reservations about B&C and the way they handled many things in the past. Including the Pavilion. Including the viscous Linda Angus attacks by Debbie Harwell’s newspaper. I always hate it when powerful people use the media to go after political enemies.
But the reality is that B&C is not the top dog these days, and has not been for several years. Ask ol’ Will Moredock about that, he allegedly got paid to write and his little book attacking both B&C and Mark McBride by the perps that now run the show (NOT attacked in his book, btw).
You may not consider Tracy to be a “RINO”. I agree that having his photo taken with the 2009 GOP candidate is very scant “proof” of that. It’s a fact that Alan Clemmons and several others in the Horry legislative delegation are far closer to the RINO label than he. Mayor John Rhodes of MB, who only has the R by his name out of political convenience, is closer to that label as well. In fact, he absolutely DEFINES that label — but he seems to be one of your personal heroes.
Hmmmmmm …
By norman July 22, 2011 at 11:20 am
Well at least he not been speeding and crashing aircraft but then again he has not had a lot of time to stack up a record better than his predecessor. Understood the AG tipped his lawyer off so they put out a BS press release that Ard was all for it. Wow a politician that wants a microscope shove up his arse. Maybe he can get some tips from a former State Treasure on how to handle the gray bar hotel.