Kickbacks, bribes and theft found in SC government. What did it cost last year?

Bribes taken in exchange for prison contraband, use of state money for gas and wiretapping were among the 16 reported fraud incidents in South Carolina’s executive branch last fiscal year, according to a South Carolina Inspector General report.

The schemes, spread across seven agencies, led to $475,312 in losses, according to the annual report. Incident losses ranged from $10 to nearly $300,000.

Still, there is a “low risk” for fraud in South Carolina state agencies, the report found. The Inspector General’s office pinpointed 18 employees involved in fraud. The state employs nearly 62,000 in more than 100 agencies as of early May.

All employees involved were fired and arrested, according to the report.

The Inspector General’s report, which has been conducted annually for more than a decade, identifies how much fraud occurs in the executive branch through reporting from the agencies, law enforcement, the comptroller general, the state auditor and other open source records.

The most expensive year for executive branch fraud occurred last year, when losses hit $1.7 million. The record was primarily driven by one, $1.5 million procurement fraud incident. This fiscal year, there were more, but less costly, fraud schemes.

The report attributes the jump in incidents to more efforts to detect fraud on the part of state agencies and law enforcement.

Between July 2025 and June 2026, there were nine instances of bribery, two of “Fleet Card” fraud and theft, and one of computer fraud, embezzlement and wire fraud, the report detailed.

One incident involved a senior executive wiretapping a conference room where employment matters were discussed. The report says the cost of “wire fraud” was $291,788, the total of two employees’ combined salaries. The report does not disclose the salaries of other state employees charged with fraud or explain why the alleged wire fraud workers’ annual salaries were totaled under the ‘loss’ column.

Two other ploys involved state employees allegedly receiving tens of thousands in kickbacks from vendors, the report says. Both were charged with use of official position for financial gain and acceptance of extra compensation. One was charged with receiving money to influence official actions.

About $14,000 was accepted across a number of bribing instances where state employees gave contraband to inmates, the report shows. In one case, two employees were charged for allegedly furnishing contraband to inmates and altering data records in exchange for $8,255.

The report doesn’t identify which agencies and employees were involved in schemes. However, several higher-profile incidents of fraud, waste and abuse were made public throughout the year in news releases and media reports.

For example, two former Election Commission leaders were charged in relation to wiretapping the agency’s office this fall.

Former director Howard Knapp was fired in September and subsequently arrested for aiding wiretapping, among other allegations. Former Election Commission deputy director Paige Salonich, also fired in September, was charged with wiretapping.

Salonich allegedly wiretapped a closed-to-the-public Election Commission meeting where personnel matters were discussed and Knapp was later fired. Knapp then allegedly called other agency employees to have the recording device removed, according to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division warrant.

SLED also arrested Knapp last fall for allegedly using public vehicles for personal use and paying for the gas with state funds, according to warrants.

Another incident made public last fiscal year involved two former South Carolina Department of Public Transportation employees. In February, James Murray Cooper and Curtis Sims Jr. were indicted on public corruption charges for allegedly pocketing thousands of dollars from private companies that were awarded expensive contracts from SCDOT.

On the last day of the fiscal year, Lowanda Atkinson, a former South Carolina corrections officer, was charged for allegedly collecting more than $550,000 in bribes while working in the agency from 2007 to 2023.

Inspector General Brian Lamkin did not immediately return a phone call and email request for more information about the report.