Latest Updates

  • Cost of investigating mystery $1.8B already overbudget

    UPDATE: 1/15/25 - In a 65-page report released late this afternoon, AlixPartners, a New York-based global consulting firm, determined that about $1.6 billion of the mystery $1.8 billion "did not represent real cash." Instead, the approximately $1.6 billion was "incorrectly recorded" to a bank fund as part of a transition years...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    January 15, 2025

  • Most S.C. municipalities don't livestream regular meetings

    Editor’s note: This is another story in a planned series of stories on livestreaming and other transparency issues affecting local or state government in South Carolina. By RICK BRUNDRETT More than two-thirds of the 271 incorporated towns and cities in South Carolina do not livestream their regular council meetings, The...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    December 17, 2024

  • Citizens can now see salaries of higher-paid S.C. judges

    Update: 3/17/25: The S.C. Department of Administration, without giving a specific reason, informed The Nerve that Judicial Department salaries are no longer included in the state salary database. But the salaries of judges and court staff making at least $50,000 annually can now be found here on the Judicial Department's...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    November 19, 2024

  • Plenty of SC school districts don't livestream official meetings

    UPDATE 5/7/25: The S.C. Legislature passed a bill requiring public school boards to “make reasonable efforts” to livestream board meetings, except for legal executive sessions. If a school board can’t "restore livestream access" during a meeting, it must make a “clear audio and video recording of the meeting in its...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    October 28, 2024

  • Ethics Commission order reveals new details about Scout Motors project

    By RICK BRUNDRETT The $1 billion subsidy to Scout Motors is about $300 million to $500 million more than what states normally would have to offer in grants for comparable projects, The Nerve found in a review of a newly released State Ethics Commission order. After learning in late January...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    October 01, 2024

  • Low bidders bypassed for state contract to probe mystery $1.8B

    By RICK BRUNDRETT A global consulting firm hired by the state to investigate the mystery $1.8 billion and related financial questions was not the low bidder for the “potential” $3 million contract, records obtained by The Nerve show. But under state law, procurement officials don’t have to accept the lowest...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    September 19, 2024

  • Senators won't let go of magistrate control

    By RICK BRUNDRETT S.C. senators this year apparently had no interest in legislation to end the longstanding practice of allowing county magistrates to serve months or even years after their terms expired. There's probably good reason for their lack of enthusiasm: Senators largely control who becomes a magistrate and how...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    August 28, 2024

  • True reform? S.C. justices say they won't investigate each other

    By RICK BRUNDRETT South Carolina’s top court has decided to remove itself from investigations of ethics complaints against sitting justices. But for now, members of the Supreme Court – whose six-figure salaries are paid by S.C. taxpayers – can still discipline a wayward fellow justice even with the creation of...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    August 18, 2024

  • $1.8B mystery could cost SC taxpayers millions to solve

    By RICK BRUNDRETT The S.C. taxpayer tab for outside attorneys and accountants hired in connection with investigations into the mystery $1.8 billion could run up to more than $5 million, records show. And so far, no state agencies are claiming their share of the $1.8 billion, while a state task...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    July 30, 2024

  • Mystery $1.8B task force advised by firm with Trump ties

    By RICK BRUNDRETT Update 7/3/24: Four days after we published this story on a global law firm with experience in federal securities investigations that has advised a state task force on the mystery $1.8 billion, the state issued a formal request for proposals – due by July 9 – to...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    June 20, 2024