State House corruption prosecutor now investigating Tri-County Electric’s board
SC’s 1st Circuit prosecutor, David Pascoe, has launched an investigation into Tri-County Electric Cooperative, a Midlands utility that provides electricity to roughly 13,600 households and businesses in a six-county area.
“I’m beginning an investigation because concerned members of the community have been contacting me, and also I’ve read news stories in The State newspaper about potential illegal behavior,” Pascoe told The State on Thursday.
SLED chief Mark Keel confirmed late Thursday that he had received a request from Pascoe for SLED’s help in investigating Tri-County, adding that request was under review. Keel said he expected to send SLED agents to begin a preliminary inquiry. “If we find laws have been violated, we will open a full investigation.”
In May, The State reported Tri-County’s now-ousted part-time board had paid themselves about $52,000 on average in 2016 — triple the national average and more than any of South Carolina’s 19 other co-ops. For years, the board members — tasked with keeping costs low for the co-op’s rural customers, who also are its owners — had boosted their own pay with co-op funded health insurance plans and by racking up $450-a-day payments for attending an inordinate number of board meetings.
For the past four years, Pascoe has led an ongoing state grand jury investigation into public corruption in the S.C. Legislature. Working with agents from the State Law Enforcement Division, Pascoe has secured guilty pleas and resignations from four top lawmakers. Two other former lawmakers are awaiting trial on misconduct charges.
However, Pascoe said the Tri-County investigation, which is in its initial stages, does not involve the state grand jury.
Instead, Pascoe is the local prosecutor for many of Tri-County’s customers, who live in Calhoun and Orangeburg counties, part of Pascoe’s 1st Circuit. Tri-County also has customers in Richland, Lexington, Kershaw and Sumter counties.
Efforts to reach attorneys for Tri-County’s now-former directors were unsuccessful Thursday.
Last Saturday, more than 1,500 Tri-County customers gathered in St. Matthews to vote out the board in an unprecedented special meeting. The board resigned Tuesday, giving up a possible legal challenge to Saturday’s vote.
Those resignations came the same day The State reported that, according to Tri-County employees, the co-op’s directors had abused their positions to get free or cut-rate power lines and landscaping work, demoting or firing employees who crossed them.
State Rep. Wendy Brawley, D-Richland, on Wednesday asked the U.S. attorney’s office in South Carolina to investigate those perks.
Tri-County Chief Executive Chad Lowder said Thursday he had not heard that Pascoe was investigating.
However, Lowder said he emailed the FBI in July after digging through Tri-County documents and finding evidence the board had received free or discounted electric lines and landscaping work.
“I felt, as CEO, I was ethically bound to send them (the FBI) what I found,” Lowder said Thursday.
Documents filed in a lawsuit against Tri-County show Lowder emailed the co-op’s attorneys that he was “concerned that this activity could create exposure to Tri-County and I feel obligated to report it to the proper authorities.”
“The board has recently made several threats to terminate me after I questioned certain practices of the board, so I am very concerned that the board will retaliate against me and other employees for bringing this information to light,” Lowder wrote to Tri-County attorneys John Felder and David Black.
This story was originally published August 23, 2018 at 5:13 PM.