the taskLt. Gov. Ken Ard remains under scrutiny as South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson created a task force this week to review the first-term Republican’s campaign spending. Ard already agreed to pay the South Carolina Ethics Commission the second largest fine in state history, over $60,000, because of 107 counts of making personal purchases with campaign funds. Ard purchased electronics, meals, football tickets and family vacations using his campaign account between his November election and his January swearing in. The state’s top prosecutor created the task force, without referral from the Ethics Commission, to review information and see if a criminal investigation from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is warranted. Wilson spokesman Mark Plowden said three prosecutors and one longtime FBI and SLED agent are sifting through the information on top of their normal case load at the Attorney General’s office.
One of the team members also worked on the investigation of former Gov. Mark Sanford, who paid the state’s highest Ethics Commission fine in 2009. There is no timeline on reaching a decision, but Plowden said the large amount information to review is expected to grow. The task force will remain the Wilson’s go-to group to handle public corruption and campaign fraud issues in the future. State Democratic chairman Dick Harpootlian said Friday that the Attorney General already has enough information to proceed to a grand jury, since Ard already admitted to spending campaign funds on personal items. The former prosecutor claimed that by creating the task force, Wilson is dragging his feet in prosecuting Ard.
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