FORMER LAWMAKER, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE GETS ANOTHER REPREIVE
|| By FITSNEWS || For the second time in as many months, former S.C. Rep. Thad Viers‘ sentencing hearing on money laundering charges has been delayed.
Viers, 37, was supposed to appear before U.S. District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks on Tuesday in Florence, S.C. to learn whether he would get locked up – and for how long.
What happened? Apparently Viers’ attorney was unable to get his supporting witnesses to the courtroom on time.
“Witnesses from Aiken, Columbia and four from the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina have requested and been granted work related leave/ vacation time and/ or other necessary permission from their employers to be available,” a motion from Viers’ attorney reads. “It is unlikely these same witnesses will be able and available to attend the hearing reset on this short notice.”
Last month Viers’ hearing was cancelled because his attorneys said the court needed more time to consider factors related to the case involving “persons and locations outside the local Florence Division or otherwise require additional time to gather.”
No specific information about those “factors” was provided.
In April, Viers pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering in connection with his role in a shady paving contractor’s scheme to hide more than $500,000 worth of assets from an insurance company looking to collect on a $6 million debt.
The federal government dropped thirteen additional charges against Viers in exchange for his guilty plea – which could land him behind bars for a decade.
Speculation has surrounded Viers’ sentencing given his proximity to the “Coastal Kickback,” a brazen pay-to-play scam in which hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash were funneled through a fabricated network of corporations to select politicians in exchange for their support of a local tax hike. The entity accused of orchestrating the scam? The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce – which controls the revenue from the tax hike (an estimated $20 million a year).
In addition to allegedly setting up its shadowy contributor network, the chamber has also been accused of steering proceeds from the tax hike to businesses that supported it – without any transparency or competitive bidding process.
In the spring of 2010, the scandal appeared on the verge of being swept under the rug – but local activists kept making noise and blogs like FITS kept applying pressure. Eventually the local mainstream media picked up the scent – and the feds launched their investigation in June of 2010.
Viers was one of the current or former state lawmakers who received funds through the Coastal Kickback. Others included fiscally liberal S.C. Senator Ray Cleary and State Rep. Alan Clemmons.
Many believe Viers is working with prosecutors in their ongoing investigation of this scam – while the ex-lawmaker has projected an aura of confidence regarding his fate.
Viers served nearly a decade in the S.C. House of Representatives beginning in 2003. He resigned his seat in March of 2012 prior to being indicted on harassment charges related to his toxic relationship with Candace Bessinger – the granddaughter of South Carolina barbecue magnate Maurice Bessinger. He later pleaded guilty to those charges and served sixty days in jail.
At the time the harassment story broke, Viers was a leading candidate for the U.S. Congress – receiving the endorsement of S.C. governor Nikki Haley.
16 comments
Chambergate Investigation Still on Track
AUGUST 27, 2013 8:00 AMVIEWS: 808
By Paul Gable
David Wren of the Sun News reported last evening that the Chambergate investigation into 2009 political donations, by a host of local LLC’s that had no income, was continuing.
The article stated an investigator with the IRS had confirmed the investigation was ongoing into political donations by these LLC’s whose principals have ties to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
According to Wren’s article, the investigator contacted the Sun News last week requesting documents the paper had obtained regarding the political donations.
This report confirms rumblings we have been hearing for some months now that the investigation was continuing and indictments from a federal grand jury would be coming down in the case.
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Damn.TWO years ago. LMAO! UPDATE!!! BREAKING NEWS!!!!
NO INDICTMENTS and Wren (and TSN) were sued and lost a judgement for $650,000.
This is your job, right pogo? Damn, son, you are obsessed to an unhealthy degree with this.
Kelly verdict STILL under appeal. It may be for years.
The probe may still be dead, of course. And honestly, few people even give a shit now. Viers may have nothing worthwhile to contribute toward it, at any rate. And so what? Life goes on.
Whichever way that goes, I’m glad Thad probably won’t go to jail to serve further time. Watch for him to make a come-back, politically, too.
As for probes, there’s one bigger than “Coastal Kickback” ever thought about being. That shitstorm will take down many Repubs and Dems in the state. Thad won’t be among them.
“As for probes, there’s one bigger than “Coastal Kickback” ever thought about being. That shitstorm will take down many Repubs and Dems in the state. Thad won’t be among them.”
Sure Boz.EVERYBODY is going down.EVERYBODY is corrupt.You spent about 5 years spewing the “Coastal Kickback” horseshit.
This fantasy should be a doozy! LMAO!!!!
Let me guess-Tom Rice put $20 the Salvation Army bucket at Wal Mart in a sealed envelope.The Santa Claus ringing the bell was really a SC politician and the $20 was a pay off for future legislative favors?
You can’t make this shit up! We will call it ‘Ho Ho Ho Kickback’! Oh my!
Nah. The case for what Rice REALLY did is strong. But Nettles won’t pursue it. So fuck him, and fuck the federal government and the crooked Dems like Clyburn, etc. that keep major crooks like him in office. SOMETHING will bring that absurd know-nothing puppet down one of these days.
Kind of like lake murray submarine llc or springhill farms of lexington, llc. Ref. SC Sec. of State site.
what ya gonna do, what ya gonna do, what ya gonna do when they come for you
Photo Caption Contest:
Poindexter and Zippy the Pinhead Celebrate After Receiving Their “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied” award.
I can top that = “Hee, hee – he’s got man boobs”
“Speculation has surrounded Viers’ sentencing given his proximity to the “Coastal Kickback,” a brazen pay-to-play scam blah blah blah”
That was five years ago. If it was such a “brazen scam,” how come not one single arrest has been made?
I’m just speculating here, but I would guess that at some point, Viers was arrested in connection with this issue.
Because Bill Nettles ain’t worth shit except on mortgage fraud conspiracies.
Very strange that he is the only one charged. Very strange indeed. Who’s been trading favors here? Who been given envelopes stuffed with cash?
Boz is just pissed he didn’t get a cut.
You have your cases confused.
I guess the judge is giving him time to try and find any of that laundered money that might be stashed around the house and get it together to make a sufficient bribe payment.
Theres some good indictments coming down. It’s exactly like the Whitey Bolgers case in Boston MA but there’s also senators, congressmen and public officials protecting the people paying to keep from being prosecuted for whatever they do. Harrell had the whole system worked out in the judicial selection committees, McCoy and friends taking $$$$ to pass the protect orders along… BBB Busted Boys and girls or should I say Beach boys and beach girls……….