Over the Christmas break we wrote about the latest legal trouble to befall shady S.C. Rep. Stephen Goldfinch (RINO-Georgetown) – who is already under federal indictment for his role in an illegal stem cell scam (a venture first exposed by FITS).
Goldfinch’s latest drama? He’s being sued in federal court for perpetrating an alleged treasure hunting scam – manipulating and defrauding one of the individuals he went into business with (and then blackmailing his former business partner with the power of his office).
FITS has obtained the complaint against Goldfinch, which was filed on Christmas Eve in U.S. District Court in Southern Texas by seafaring treasure hunter William Kenon.
While there are any number of interesting components to Kenon’s lawsuit, we are most interested in the allegations in which Goldfinch is alleged to have invoked his capacity as a member of the S.C. House of Representatives.
Specifically, Kenon accuses Goldfinch of offering to use his “influence as a powerful lawyer and state legislator” to obtain permits for their treasure hunting venture. And after allegedly scamming Kenon out of the ownership of their company, Goldfinch is accused of threatening him in an effort to extort money – again invoking his public office.
“Goldfinch emphasized that he was a very powerful lawyer and legislator in South Carolina, and if Mr. Kenon wanted Goldfinch out of the picture it was going to cost Mr. Kenon money to take him out.”
Goldfinch has yet to respond to the complaint.
These allegations are incredibly serious because they involve a lawmaker expressly attempting to use his elected office for personal gain.
“Republican” leaders in the S.C. General Assembly – and in the Georgetown “Republican” Party – stood by Goldfinch in the wake of his stem cell plot, in which he denied any wrongdoing and attempted to shift the blame on others.
And that enabled Goldfinch to hold onto his seat …
This latest scandal, however, strikes us as further evidence of Goldfinch’s questionable character – and if he is indeed found to have used his office in an effort to enrich himself, then he should be immediately removed from that office.
Of course as we’ve noted previously this is South Carolina … where elected officials get to do that sort of thing with impunity.
36 comments
Looks like Goldfinch did know where the shipwreck was and the lawsuit is mainly about whether Goldfinch was a 15% member of the LLC created to bring up the treasure. This looks to be more about misunderstandings between Kennon and Goldfinch and less about Goldfinch using his legislative powers to give himself some sort of advantage in treasure hunting.
Will, know this is off-subject. In regards to the latest data breach, was there a police report filed for the theft of the laptop containing data? Wonder if the window was smashed in, or possibly the door of the car left unlocked. Might be interesting to find out. As for this slimer, Goldfinch, do you think he will serve prison time?
At the very least, he will be disbarred.
Miss Suzanne, it is very unlikely Goldfinch will be disbarred as long as Jean Toal holds her position. Disbarment in SC is purely a political instrument with Toal. It is at her discretion. Beatty and Hearn always vote with her. Kittridge goes along to get her off his back on his personal issues. Toal is behind in her race against Pleicones and desperately needs every vote she can buy. By doing nothing against Goldfinch she shows the other lawyer legislators how she will protect them if they get in trouble.
Now, the Feds may make Goldfinch surrender his law license like they did EW Cromatie as part of his plea agreement. The Feds did that because they could not trust Toal. Then Bob Coble and Toal tried to work a deal to permit him to take other avenues rather than the disbarment!
Btw, the Democratic Party white do-boys James Smith and Vincent Sheheen are working for Toal which says a lot about their character and integrity.
Wait, Watch and See: Nothing will happen to Goldfinch unless the Feds force it.
I agree with you, Low Country Lawyer. The talk in Columbia is Toal is cutting all sorts of deal to be sure Pleicones does not get into the leadership position and expose just how bad she has been. She does own Beatty and Hearn. Goldfinch will not be disbarred until after Toal gets what she wants. If he doesn’t vote for Toal, I am sure he will be placed on interim suspension without notice or hearing as she has been known to do before Pleicones gets in there.
Your dementia is noted.
Your delusional disorder is noted if you posted this quip with any intention of alluding to Jean Toal being an honest and fair public official.
According to SC Sec. of State, there are several LLCs for which he is the registered agent. You do not make Patricia proud.
I’m not sure what that has to do with anything. You can be a registered agent for an unlimited number of llcs.
“ps. If you don’t take this deal, I’ll make sure everyone in this industry knows the truth about you.”
It would appear that everyone is about to learn the truth about Cockroach Goldfinch and at this point he is beginning to look a lot like that ugly green snot character in the Zicam commercial – the truck hasn’t hit him yet but it is rollin down the highway
From an article in the Georgetown Times on Wednesday, 14 August 2013, Updated 23 September 2013, about the recovery of the 22,000 pound propeller from the wreck of the Lief Erickson, sunk off Cape Romain on 4 February 1905:
“Fortunately, the crew of the Rio Bravo was working nearby and got to the wreck of the Leif Eriksson just in time to save this historical find.” said S.C. Rep. Stephen Goldfinch, a principal of Lowcountry Marine Salvage. . . .”
http://www.gtowntimes.com/article/20130814/GTT01/308149999/0/GTT&slId=2
Readers of the Federal complaint will note that the salvage ship Rio Bravo, and Lowcountry Marine Salvage, LLC are part of the complaint.
Sound like House Speaker Bobby Harrell, eh?
The name of Goldfinch’s mysterious “diver” buddy is in the suit…is the “Kent Rogerson” in the suit the same person as “Donald Kent Rogerson” (some with a “JR,” some without) with the long string of entries in the Horry County Public Index for speeding, civil judgments, CDV, etc.? If he is, I guess that could be a case of birds of a feather. No pun intended- honest!
Goldfinch appears to be a weird dude…..
He must be some sort of snake charmer.
…and the “Chat Handle of the Day Award” goes to…”Boning his wife after jail.” Speech!
I’ll call it my victory speech:
“I’d like to thank you person that was totally responsible for me boning Ms. Goldfinch:
Mr. Goldfinch.
My hat is off to you good sir. “
Shifty mi amigo, I hate to be crass and cynical…no, actually I’m okay with all that. It could, just maybe, be the fact that he has way more money than sense. How many well-to-do daddy’s boys do you know who marry ugly fat girls? Hell, I’m only slightly-well-to-do and my wife’s a hammer. Besides, I would (politely) beg to differ with your assessment of her status. She’s definitely cute, but I surely wouldn’t categorize her as “world class.” Then again, it may have been the beard…
‘Then again, it may have been the beard’
—– or the “Adolph” mustache under his nose?
Lack of discernible chin, perhaps? Nope, I’m going with my original size-of-the-checkbook theory.
Yes! If you think his rap sheet is bad in Horry Cty., just check out Georgetown Cty. Go to SC Judicial page. Amazing.
I thought it must be. Is Georgetown County online? If so, I’ll check that out too. Is he a Georgetown guy, I guess?
Lots of cases in the Georgetown online index under Kent Rogerson and Donald Kent Rogerson. Check for DOB 1Apr71, since Sr. shows up with DOB 7Mar41, too.
Holy cow, dude! Who IS this clown? Why would anyone (especially an “influential and powerful senator and attorney” hee hee) associate with this guy, publicly or otherwise?! Not only is Goldfinch starting to look dirty, but methinks the boy may have some serious judgment issues.
Is Floyd Spence’s son involved with this crook?
Renee is no dummy. Has her masters from the Citadel. She will move on and be happy. Wonder if she’s still working with Stephen at the law firm?
Between the evictions, beaches of contract, domestic violence, DNR violations, foreclosures. Wow, just wow.
-There is a report in coastal observer 2013 “Development: Suits want county to pay for unbuildable lots” where Georgetown county could face up to $10 million in lawsuits, and Stephen Goldfinch is one of the attorneys suing for this money on behalf of his clients. There is a pot of money in the bank from surety bonds that the county did not use, and some people have their eye of this pot, looks like.
-Stephen Goldfinch represented our good boy Donald Kent Rogerson jr according to court records on December 16th 2013 in Georgetown family court.
Wait. He’s suing the COUNTY? For $10 million?
That doesn’t seem appropriate for an elected representative. Yeah, I know he’s a state rep., not county, but still. That reeks.
He is one of the attorneys suing on behalf of his clients. There is one more attorney representing another set of clients. Its like initiating the lawsuit with a handful and hoping other property owners (up to 100 potential owners) would join to cash-in. Could not find the county attorney’s response.
Yes, still inappropriate in my opinion, for an elected rep. to be suing another local governmental entity – especially one composed in part of his constituents.
I totally agree that reeks. Especially the pot of money is from surety bonds the county issued so the taxpayers are paying for that $10 million.
Here’s a funny, no, ironic, observation: The utter lack of detailed, in-depth media coverage in Goldfinch’s home area means that the folks who’ve read Will’s articles (and, of course, the homegrown investigative nitwittery and carrying-on that has taken place organically on the comment boards, as usual) have a better grasp of this situation than anyone other than Goldfinch himself. Bizarre, no? If I was the editor of the Sun News (God forbid), I would not call myself a journalist, and please, no apologists for the Fourth Estate crying about the requirements to use only verifiable information and all of that. Most of what has been posted here is easily verifiable from publicly available sources. It’s a sad commentary on the state of “journalism” today…
P&C is doing cutting-edge reporting on Coyotes in Sullivan’s Island and an imaginary ‘magic wand’ that could change the way your home looks. Please….they are overloaded with these and news of similar importance to report…..and of course their bread and butter verbatim reporting of whatever chunder anyone of any importance throws out for them to mindlessly print, in my humble opinion.
I think this dudes wife looks like the Templeton woman over at DHEC.
Its all for a noble cause fellas. It’s the other guys that are bad. I swear.
Goldfinch quotes
– To Associated Press (stem cell case): “I had the best intentions. I didn’t mean to do anything wrong.” [By the way…I made 5 million dollars selling and distributing stem cells in Texas]
-To Georgetown Times (Treasure hunting case): “Kent Rogerson and I have been working for months to try to donate most if not all of the artifacts that we’ve recovered from shipwrecks. We have been trying to save these (artifacts) all along.” [By the way, I doubt William Kenon, who spent all the money, was counting on ‘donating’ the artifacts. Really? Kent Rogerson and Stephen Goldfinch have been terribly misunderstood? Really?