Crime & Courts

North Charleston Investigation: Sea Fox Boats Under The Microscope

Another thread of Lowcountry corruption investigation set to unravel…

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Our media outlet has written several articles this year about an ongoing federal investigation involving various officials and entities in North Charleston, South Carolina.

We know at least one component of the federal inquiry involves allegations of corruption involving a taxpayer-subsidized campaign to reduce “gun violence” in the Palmetto State’s third-largest city. This campaign resulted in $1.3 million from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) being routed to a network of purported charitable organizations.

Appropriations funneled through this network of “unvetted and unmonitored nonprofits” failed to make a dent in curbing violent crime in North Charleston – but it did fatten the pockets of the city’s politically connected.

“Allegations of kickbacks tied to these grants are running rampant through the corridors of power in North Charleston,” we reported back in February.

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This March, we reported on embattled North Charleston councilman Jerome Heyward‘s alleged “exposure” to this gun grant scandal – and just last month we reported that “multiple city officials” had been hit with “search warrants seeking their electronic devices.”

We also recently confirmed that “multiple target letters” have been sent in connection with these various North Charleston-related investigations by prosecutors in the office of U.S. attorney Adair Ford Boroughs.

Target letters are notifications from federal authorities to individuals or entities informing them that they are the focus of an ongoing criminal inquiry.

Things are heating up, in other words… on multiple fronts.

The latest development in this ongoing inquiry? The alleged involvement of Sea Fox Boats – a Charleston-based company which got mixed up with several North Charleston leaders in a since-scuttled partnership.

In 2022, Sea Fox sought to collaborate with the city of North Charleston and Charleston County Parks on a massive project on the banks of the Ashley River – a former hospital site located approximately five miles north-northwest of Broad Street on the Charleston peninsula.

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RELATED | NORTH CHARLESTON PROBE: DEVICES SOUGHT

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The 103-acre tract of land was supposed to include all manner of public facilities: Athletic fields, playgrounds, picnic areas, a bike path and a massive public pier. Sea Fox’s involvement – and the tens of millions it planned on contributing to the project – were viewed as essential to its success. The sticking point? Sea Fox wanted to install a 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on a corner of the property, accompanied by a boat launch and dry dock.

For Sea Fox, the manufacturing facility – which would have employed an estimated 300 people – and boat launch were key components of the deal.

“The idea was to buy your boat and pilot it from the dock,” a source familiar with the project said.

Local residents – who had been pushing the idea of a park since the city acquired this land in 2014 – were vehemently opposed to the Sea Fox facility, pointing to concerns about the potential environmental impact of the plant on the Ashley River. Specifically, environmental engineers raised concerns about fiberglass cutting at the facility – and the costs associated with mediating its impact.

Leaders assured the city they had a system in mind to “filter” any harmful contaminants, but questions were raised about whether such a system would make the company’s boats cost-prohibitive to manufacture.

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In April 2023, North Charleston zoned the property for residential use – effectively killing the proposal. In response, Sea Fox leader Freddy Renken launched a no-holds barred effort to oust certain council members in the November 2023 municipal election. That effort was a mixed bag, and in 2024 the newly constituted leadership of North Charleston once again refused to play ball with Renken’s company. Three months ago, the project formally collapsed when Sea Fox terminated its lease with the county.

According to our sources, Renken – and several other individuals tied to Sea Fox – have been linked to the ongoing federal investigation due to actions undertaken in connection with the scuttled park.

What specific actions? That’s a good question…

Also, how is the Sea Fox component of the federal probe tied to the North Charleston gun grant scandal? Or other elements of the broader Lowcountry federal investigation? Those are even better questions… but we are told there are “connecting points.”

Sources familiar with the ongoing inquiry say the first round of criminal indictments are imminent – and should spell out in more detail how these scandals fit together.

Keep it tuned to this media outlet for the very latest as we track those inquiries…

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks (Dylan Nolan)

Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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3 comments

CongareeCatfish Top fan October 15, 2024 at 3:51 pm

This isn’t the only shady situation involving public property, local politicians, and “inside baseball” machinations in North Charleston. Look at who managed to set up a means to buy up pretty much all of the old naval base property…while still serving in the Legislature. A certain peninsular Charleston politician is poised to make alot of money on that land…along with the Atlanta backers and some local North Charleston politicians. A good intrepid reporter who knows how to search the ROD could develop quite an interesting story on how all that went down.

Reply
Red Uprising October 16, 2024 at 7:32 am

All this because we asked a corporation to clean up after themselves.

We already have to deal with mercury and microplastics in fish thanks to unfettered capitalism, can we leave out microscopic fiberglass?

Reply
CongareeCatfish Top fan October 16, 2024 at 9:39 am

Well, while I raise no objection to the goal of keeping the waters free of contamination, it has little to nothing to do with capitalism per se. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the environmental destruction wrought by the former USSR, the Soviet block, and (to this day) communist China and Vietnam? I’d say “unfettered communism” did alot more harm than “unfettered capitalism.”

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