MORNING HEADLINES | An irresistible legislative force is set to meet an immovable political object when a S.C. Senate Finance subcommittee issues its final report this week on the $1.8 billion accounting scandal that’s landed the state in hot water with federal fraud investigators.
“During our investigation, I became convinced that Treasurer [Curtis] Loftis should be removed from office,” S.C. Sen. Larry Grooms (R-Berkeley), who’s heading up the Senate probe, told the Charleston City Paper on March 14. “For the good of the people of South Carolina, the treasurer who is largely responsible for our state’s financial fiasco should immediately resign.”
But in a separate email to the City Paper the day before, Loftis made it clear he’s not going anywhere.
“Most South Carolinians know this is simply dirty politics,” Loftis said. “They know the state’s cash and investments are properly accounted for, and they repeatedly tell me to keep up the good work and continue to fight for them.”
At issue is the treasurer’s role in a series of fiscal foul-ups that overstated the state’s cash position by $3.5 billion for more than a decade, misleading investors and drawing federal scrutiny. About half that money — $1.8 billion — supposedly existed in an account that Loftis claimed last year was sound. Testifying under oath in April 2024, he told senators the $1.8 billion, which turned out to be nonexistent, had generated almost $200 million in interest since 2017.
A January report from the independent forensic accounting firm AlixPartners found that the state’s three principal financial officers — Loftis, Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and State Auditor George Kennedy — all bore some responsibility for the mess. Eckstrom and Kennedy have already stepped down, leaving Loftis as the last man standing.
While Loftis says he accepts the AlixPartners’ findings regarding the account, he called Grooms’ Senate investigation “political grandstanding,” and vowed to “fight to my last breath” any effort to bring the independently elected treasurer’s office under tighter legislative control.
“The subcommittee has publicly made several false accusations, used falsified documents and denied my constitutional and statutory rights and protections,” Loftis said. “But I have gotten used to that over the years as those who want control of the money will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.”
Nevertheless, as the committee prepares to release its report, Grooms is firm about Loftis’ culpability.
“The Treasurer engaged and continues to engage in deception and misdirection in attempts to deflect blame for the Treasury errors that created the $1.8 billion blunder,” he said. “As State Treasurer, he has lost control of the Treasury, as the books of the Treasury are not complete and are not accurate.”
Loftis, a four-term incumbent, has pledged not to run again in 2026 — though he seemed to leave the door open at least a crack when asked if he might reconsider.
“I continue to enjoy widespread public support as I have for the last four
elections and money is not an object, so I have options,” he said. – Jack O’Toole
- Editor’s Note: Statehouse Report, the City Paper’s affiliated newsletter on state politics and policy, called for Loftis to resign last week in this commentary.
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