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The head of a South Carolina company with reported ties to a major Lowcountry scandal was arrested and charged with driving under the influence (DUI) last weekend, per jail records.
Freddy Renken – leader of Charleston, S.C.-based Sea Fox Boats – is under the microscope on multiple fronts these days. Aside from his company’s reported proximity to a major federal inquiry involving various officials and entities in North Charleston, S.C., Renken now has another headache to deal with related to his own record.
Renken, 56, was arrested by officers of the Mount Pleasant Police Department (MPPD). According to jail records, the businessman was booked at the Charleston County detention center at 3:23 a.m. EST on Saturday (January 4, 2025). Renken was released just under eight hours later – at 11:04 a.m. EST – having been given a $992 personal recognizance bond by a local magistrate.
While court records indicate Renken was charged with a first offense DUI, he was previously arrested in the spring of 2024 by Charleston police for the same offense.
Here is his most recent mug shot…
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According to court records, Renken is scheduled to appear in municipal court in Mount Pleasant on February 5, 2025 to answer to the charge against him.
As FITSNews reported last fall, Renken’s company became involved with several North Charleston leaders in a “since-scuttled partnership” beginning in 2022. Sea Fox had hoped to partner with the city – and with Charleston County Parks – on a massive project on the banks of the Ashley River.
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 problem? 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.
That was a no-go after environmental engineers raised concerns about fiberglass cutting at the facility – and the costs associated with mediating its impact on the local ecosystem. As a result, the project was shut down in April 2023 – prompting Renken to launch a no-holds barred effort to remove multiple local officials from office.
As FITSNews reported, “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.”
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Federal sources have been tight-lipped about the status of the investigation, which is also reportedly focused on 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.
“Allegations of kickbacks tied to these grants are running rampant through the corridors of power in North Charleston,” we reported last February.
Last month, several North Charleston officials submitted their resignations – including the top assistant to embattled mayor Reggie Burgess. These resignation letters were submitted shortly before a fresh round of funding was issued to many of the same nonprofits linked to the original federal investigation.
Last 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” were sent last year in connection with these various North Charleston-related investigations by prosecutors in the office of U.S. attorney Adair Ford Boroughs.
Count on FITSNews to keep our audience in the loop as this multi-faceted inquiry moves forward…
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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. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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