Key FBI informant, 3 others sentenced in Pinson case

A major FBI undercover informant used as a “sting” operative to gather evidence on other suspects in one of the state’s biggest public corruption cases in years was sentenced Tuesday to three months in a halfway house.

Lance Wright, 49, a Lexington County businessman, also was sentenced to three years’ probation by U.S. Judge David Norton at the federal courthouse in Charleston. He also will be partially responsible for $993,000 in restitution for money he stole, the judge said.

Wright either knew about, participated in or led FBI agents to three far-flung criminal schemes involving bribery and fraud at S.C. State University; the illegal siphoning of some $1 million in federal funds to a diaper plant in Marion County; and the theft of federal funds from a Columbia public-private housing development called Village at River’s Edge, according to prosecutors and documents in his case.

Most importantly, Wright proved crucial in helping the FBI get key evidence on former S.C. State University board chair Jonathan Pinson, whom federal prosecutors described as the “mastermind” in all three criminal schemes, prosecutors said.

In all, the investigation and prosecutions into the various schemes took four years, from 2011 to this year.

Last summer, Norton told Pinson he should consider pleading guilty to get the best sentence he could. But Pinson chose trial by federal jury, resulting in a conviction on 29 of 45 felony counts including racketeering, or running of an ongoing criminal enterprise that includes activities like money laundering and bribery. Pinson was sentenced in May to five years in prison; he is appealing.

Because Wright chose to cooperate from the time he was first approached by FBI agent Ron Grosse in early 2011, he was rewarded with a lighter sentence and a place in the unofficial FBI roster of useful criminals whom the bureau first nabs, then puts to work to catch other criminals.

“Lance Wright was the most important informant and ‘sting man’ in a South Carolina public corruption case since Ron Cobb,” S.C. Common Cause executive director John Crangle said late Tuesday, referencing Cobb’s role in Operation Lost Trust.

In the early 1990s, the FBI miked up Cobb, then a State House lobbyist, to gather bribery evidence that resulted in the convictions of two state senators, 15 House members and six other lobbyists.

Wright, who had pleaded guilty to mail fraud and bank fraud, could have been sentenced to up to 33 months in prison. “I am not sorry for being caught in illegal conduct. I am sorry that it ever happened,” he told the judge. “I take full accountability.”

Numerous character witnesses wrote letters for Wright, telling the judge about his virtues as a hard-working, self-made, family-loving, church-involved man.

And the Rev. Charles Jackson Sr., pastor of Brookland Baptist in West Columbia, even asked the judge for “redemptive grace” for his longtime parishioner who for some 25 years has supported the church in numerous ways.

“This is something I very rarely do,” Jackson told Norton, saying he has only pleaded for mercy in court some 10 times in 44 years as pastor. “The best of Lance has yet to be seen,” Jackson said. “I plead in the name of Jesus Christ you will consider probation.”

Later, at other hearings, lawyers for several men Wright’s undercover activities helped convict depicted Wright in a different light. Wright had a magnetic personality and was addicted to a lifestyle of fast deals, loose business ethics, expensive travel and partying, lawyers told the judge, and their clients got caught up in it.

But Norton clearly was moved by Wright’s assistance to the government and lack of a criminal record, as well as by a lengthy summation of Wright’s rise from a fatherless, poverty-ridden childhood into a life of money and respectability that turned into being an FBI informant.

“That cooperation came at a very great price,” Wright’s attorney, Sherri Lydon, told Norton. “He knew he was going to wear a wire and be reviled and painted as the devil. ... After the news broke (about the case), Lance lost many friends. He has jeopardized all that he holds dear.”

But the judge said he felt he had to give Wright at least some confinement, noting he will have to spend nights in the halfway house.

Ironically, in 2011, the FBI was originally investigating Wright about a separate scheme involving alleged bank fraud. When agents questioned Wright about that scheme, he began giving them information that led to the other schemes that were the subject of Tuesday’s sentencing.

Besides Wright, Norton also sentenced three other men Tuesday:

▪ Michael Bartley, former S.C. State University police chief, three years’ probation and 100 hours of community service. He had pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge for agreeing to accept a payoff of $30,000 and an all-terrain vehicle as part of a kickback scheme at the university. Pinson had helped organize that scheme.

During the hearing, Bartley, 51, apologized, and Norton told him he was amazed the ex-chief “had sold his integrity so cheaply.” Bartley could have been sentenced to up to 14 months in prison.

▪ Robert “Tony” Williams, an investor in the Village at River’s Edge and other projects, was sentenced to three months in a halfway house and three years’ probation. He had pleaded guilty to various conspiracy charges.

Williams, 57, was a successful Irmo businessman running a hospice company who began to participate in questionable schemes only after he met Wright, his attorney Kathy Evatt told Norton. “Had he not met Lance, he would not be here today,” said Evatt, a federal public defender.

Evatt described Williams today as a ruined man, who is living on food stamps in Florida at a pastor’s house, has a severe case of diabetes and needs another major surgery to correct an earlier bariatric procedure that went wrong.

Evatt also told the judge that Williams helped federal officials in the prosecution of former Lexington County Sheriff James Metts, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to a federal offense stemming from interference in the handling and inappropriate release of two illegal immigrants at the county jail in 2011.

Neither Evatt nor prosecutors would give details about any of Williams’ help related to Metts.

▪ Phillip Mims, of Lexington, who also cooperated with the FBI, was sentenced to three months in a halfway house and three years’ probation. He had pleaded guilty to conspiring to get sizable loans from banks for building projects in Marion County and in the Columbia area, and diverting the money to illegal uses.

Mims, 46, a U.S. Air Force veteran of Desert Storm, was involved in business activities with Wright, activities that became criminal and got him in the trouble with the law, his attorney Joe McCulloch said.

McCulloch also portrayed his client as a good man, offering as a character reference a letter from Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, telling the judge how Mims – after agreeing to plead guilty to the federal charge – had risked his life to help Lott, who was being attacked by an angry citizen.

Choking back tears, Mims apologized to the judge.

A sentencing date for a fifth co-conspirator, Richard Zahn, has not been set.

Prosecutors recommended probation for all five co-conspirators, according to court filings, who they say cooperated with the government in its investigation of Pinson. Four of the five testified at his trial last summer.

A sixth person, Ed Givens of Columbia, was given six months’ probation last year. Givens, a conspirator in two of Pinson’s schemes while Givens served as chief counsel for S.C. State, pleaded guilty to misprision, or concealment, of a felony. He received probation.

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 12:15 PM.