SLED charges former Lexington County Councilman charged with COVID relief fraud
A longtime Lexington County politician and lawyer, who was once accused of declaring “I am your king. I am your God” by a former employee who sued him for sexual harassment, has been charged with fraudulenty obtaining COVID relief funds from South Carolina.
On Friday, Billy R. Oswald, 77, was charged with three counts of fraud related to the theft of funds from the state’s Disaster Unemployment Assistance fund in March 2020, according to warrants.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division charged Oswald with one count each of forgery, computer crime and obtaining property under false pretenses. All three charges concern an amount of $10,000 or more, according to warrants released by SLED.
The fund, which is administered by the state Department of Employment and Workforce, provides temporary financial assistance to workers who are impacted by natural disasters and who are not eligible for normal benefits. During the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, this was extended to businesses impacted by closures due to the disease and lockdowns.
Oswald was a political and legal fixture in West Columbia. Over a more that 50-year career, he held positions on the Lexington County Council and on the county Board of Education as well as the Lexington Medical Center. He ran, unsuccessfully, three times in Republican primaries for legislative seats, including most recently for state Senate in 2024.
All the while he maintained a legal practice at law firms he started, the Oswald Law Firm and the Oswald and Burnside Law Firm. But since bombshell allegations filed by his former office manager in September 2022, Oswald’s career has been in a freefall.
The suit brought by his former office manager, who The State is not naming as the allegations concern sexual assault, accused the then 74-year-old Oswald of groping the employee, exposing his genitals, calling female clients and workers “b-----s,” and performing “sexual acts” with prostitutes in the office conference room during work hours.
Oswald said at the time that the office manager’s allegations were “all lies,” and that he was physically unable to perform the acts described following multiple surgeries from a bout of gangrene in 2008.
After Oswald settled the case brought by his former office manager for $71,000 in back pay, the South Carolina Supreme Court suspended his license to practice law in January of this year. Later that month, he was arrested and charged with assault and lewd exposure after exposing himself to a woman who was seeking legal help, according to statements in court.
Oswald’s lawyer in that matter, Jake Moore, said at the hearing that that Oswald “maintains his innocence.”
On Friday, SLED charged Oswald with three counts of fraud related to the theft of funds from the state’s Disaster Unemployment Assistance fund.
Oswald allegedly “falsely certified” to the employment department that both of his law firms had been shut down by COVID, according to the warrants. Oswald also allegedly operated a “rental business and stimulus aid business with properties in his name,” according to the warrants.
The charges appear related to allegations that were first made in Oswald’s former office manager’s lawsuit. The former employee alleged that during the pandemic, Oswald stopped paying her and ordered all of his employees to file for unemployment while continuing to work for the firm, according to the lawsuit.
He also grew increasingly “occupied with a scheme to make money by applying for unemployment benefits and CARES Act funds for people,” according to the lawsuit.
In a statement, SLED said that it began investigating Oswald at the request of the state employment department. The charges were based off of payroll, financial and wage records as well as “witnesses that stated the business was still operating.”