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The former chairman of the Lexington County, South Carolina Republican party has been arrested by agents of the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and charged with fraud, according to a news release from the agency.
Craig Thomas Caldwell, 42, of Lexington, S.C. was charged with two counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent involving a value of more than $10,000, the release (.pdf) noted.
According to probable cause affidavits accompanying warrants for his arrest, Caldwell – in his capacity as chairman of the LCGOP – did “willfully and knowingly take $61,591 from the (party’s) bank account.”
“The funds were transferred by Caldwell into his personal bank account,” the affidavits continued.
According to investigators, there were 147 total transfers between 2018 and 2023.
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“Caldwell … admitted to covering these transfers up by falsifying monthly treasurer’s reports to submit to the other members of the party,” the affidavit added.
Caldwell was further accused of stealing $52,300 from the Lexington Rotary Club foundation between May of 2023 and March of this year.
According to the affidavits, he “wrote eleven checks to himself from the foundation account while he was treasurer.”
“Caldwell attempted to hide the withdrawals from other board members by not putting the checks into their accounting software,” the affidavits noted.
Caldwell’s alleged offenses are in violation of the S.C. Code of Laws § 16-13-230. Due to the amounts involved, they are felony charges and, if convicted, he could face fines “at the discretion of the court” and a prison sentence of up to ten years on each charge.
As with anyone accused of committing any crime, Caldwell is considered innocent until proven guilty by our criminal justice system – or until such time as he may wish to enter some form of allocution in connection with a plea agreement with prosecutors related to any of the charges filed against him.
Caldwell’s was booked on the two fraud charges at the Lexington County detention center. His case will be prosecuted by the office of S.C. eighth circuit solicitor David Stumbo.
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THE RELEASE …
(SLED)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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12 comments
Typical Republican. Nothing anyone would not expect in the party of Trump. I mean why would you even be in politics if you were not given access to OPM.
By the way still no mention of Trump appearing prominently in the Epstein files.
Yeah, Dims would never do anything like steal money or embezzle funds! Tom Cullerton, Deb McManus, Eddie Cooper, Eric Smith, Dan Rostenkowski, Henry Cuellar, Robert Menendez, Chaka Fattah, Corrine Brown… not withstanding.
Just to name a few
The party of law and order, people.
Wake up.
Google George E. Norcross III
RINO
He was a RINO, and when the duly-elected new chair took over, she was digging into Caldwell’s misdeeds, when the corrupt SCGOP (full of RINOs and headed by a RINO, who engage in Marxist tactics to get/stay in power) stripped her of her position and handed it to a RINO of their choosing.
Poor HT. Another Pamela Godwin sycophant that can’t get over having to eat a big helping of humble pie.
He was a RINO, and when the duly-elected new chair took over, she was digging into Caldwell’s misdeeds, when the corrupt SCGOP (full of RINOs and headed by a RINO, who engage in Marxist tactics to get/stay in power) stripped her of her position and handed it to a RINO of their choosing.
Felony charges? Wow, this guy’s White House material!
Rumor has it that Trump picked him for his VP!
C’mon Will! Don’t we at least deserve the booking photo of the “alleged” perp? I have no doubt that Drew McKissick will get involved in this case and push his weight around to get his boy off the hook. Drew has invested a lot of time and money in grooming the lad to fill his position after he gets promoted up to the “Bigs”.