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  Title	SC sheriff racked up $53K on county credit card, from buffets to beach stays. Council never knew.
  ID	2577061
  External ID	7156747968
  Author	Christian Boschult
  Published Date	Sept. 24, 2024, 9:39 a.m.
  Summary	Among Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright's purchases were items from gun stores, fitness websites, Best Buy and streaming services. SPARTANBURG — Fancy steakhouses, stays at a ritzy beach resort
  Tags	None
  URL	https://www.postandcourier.com/spartanburg/news/spartanburg-sc-sheriff-chuck-wright-credit-card/article_bab19db8-6f82-11ef-8761-9bcccd6f4019.html
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• Content Details

  Content ID	1098610
  Key	f3db9ecc-4ea1-4bcd-909e-6663128b2495
  Content	Among Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright's purchases were items from gun stores, fitness websites, Best Buy and streaming services. SPARTANBURG — Fancy steakhouses, stays at a ritzy beach resort, subscriptions to Amazon Prime and Sirius XM radio , and almost $12,000 in Apple.com purchases — all are among more than $53,6000 in spending that Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright put on his county-funded credit card. From December 2017 through April 2018, he spent $8,000 on fast food, steakhouses and pizza joints and another $8,000 on high-end hotels, according to a review of more than six years of spending records The Post and Courier obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Wright, whose salary last year topped before a $15,000 state stipend, also spent public money on movie-streaming services, a keto diet brand, Wish.com Best Buy Tractor Supply and more than $1,600 at Dollar General , plus a handful of fitness and aviation websites, among other purchases. He was elected in 2004, beating 16-year incumbent Bill Coffey after campaigning on a platform of more proactive policing. For most of his 20 years as sheriff, he's had a county-funded credit card and seemingly no oversight for how he uses it, with his highest rates of spending coming in recent years. "That's kind of news to me," County Councilman Justin McCorkle said. "I was not aware of Sheriff Wright having a personal credit card." Other council members likewise said they were in the dark about Wright's credit card use. But McCorkle wouldn't speculate on whether the charges on the card were appropriate without more information. "If it's something the Sheriff's Office needs, I guess that's what it would be for," McCorkle added. The $53,600 in spending listed in statements obtained by The Post and Courier only dates back to December 2017 because the county didn't retain earlier records. County spokeswoman Scottie Kay Blackwell said in an email the county didn't how long Wright had the card but noted that it is “outside of and predates our P-Card program,” which started in 2006. “The Sheriff's Office would have to confirm how long he has had the credit card,” Blackwell added. “Because he is an elected official and his card is not a part of our P-Card program, we do not have access to that information.” Other top county officials have P-cards, including Clerk of Court Amy Cox. Blackwell said she wasn't aware of any other officials with cards outside of the P-card program. Apple.com , by far the biggest beneficiary of Wright's credit card privileges, received $11,883 across 429 charges. Charges from the company appeared on nearly all 77 credit card statements reviewed by The Post and Courier and range in amounts from $1.98 to $399.99. What those and other purchases were for was not publicly available. Wright, who faces an ethics investigation for hiring his son, declined an interview request. After declining to be interviewed, neither he nor Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Kevin Bobo responded to questions sent via email. When The Post and Courier filed an FOIA request for recent receipts and invoices of what Wright bought with public money, the Sheriff's Office said it had no such records. County credit card rules The county has 140 employees enrolled in its purchasing card — or P-card — program, including five employees at the Sheriff's Office. Wright isn't one of them. Employees with county P-cards must ensure their purchases are for “legitimate business purposes only,” according to the county purchasing manual. Those cardholders must retain charge slips and receipts and are prohibited from using their cards on Amazon.com and for food purchases. But Wright's card is not part of the county P-card program, and he's not bound by the rules that would have kept him from spending $68 at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in January 2022, $55 at Stax's Drake House in Landrum this past March, or $16.04 a month for Amazon Prime And unlike with the sheriff, tossing out receipts is a luxury the 140 county employees with P-cards don't have. Using their cards for unauthorized or personal uses or failing to keep receipts could result in discipline or termination, according to county policy. “It looks like he was having a lot of fun at the county's expense,” said John Crangle, a Columbia-based government watchdog attorney who reviewed the credit card statements. “A lot of those expenditures don't appear to be related to his office.” County Councilman David Britt said he hadn't seen the credit card statements and wasn't aware Wright had a county card until this reporter told him. But he said he had faith in the sheriff. “I'm sure he's got a valid reason for doing what he's doing, and I support him,” Britt said. “He could be listening to podcasts on leadership. He could be picking up food for stakeouts. I trust Chuck and have worked with him for 20 years.” Councilman Monier Abusaft also said he wasn't aware of Wright's credit card, but noted that the lack of receipts didn't mean the sheriff's purchases weren't appropriate. "In general, it's important to us to be good stewards of taxpayers dollars and we also want to be in a position to demonstrate that we're using the money on appropriately approved things," Abusaft said. "I think we should have proper controls at all times for all of our department heads, not specific to Chuck Wright, but to all of them." Abusaft said he has asked staff to make sure no county funds were misspent. "Nothing I'm saying is suggesting the sheriff is doing anything inappropriate. I'll wait to see what county staff says about the expenditures," Abusaft said. "It's important to me to have very strong accounting principles and protections in place. Because taxpayer dollars, they're not our dollars." Hotels, steakhouses and fast food But aside from Wright's spending on Apple.com , his biggest expenditures have been food and accommodations. Wright spent $8,001 at hotels, almost all in South Carolina. Most of the charges line up with South Carolina Sheriff's Association conferences in January and July. These conferences help sheriffs to network, provide training and connect them with vendors. The summer conferences invite sheriffs to the Marriott Myrtle Beach Resort in Grande Dunes , an oceanfront hotel that offers towering beach-view suites, indoor and outdoor pools, a hot tub, valet parking and its own hibiscus spa in the poshest part of town. Resort guests can access spacious beaches a short walk from their rooms with an expansive view of the coastline. Wright spent $1,032 at the hotel last year and $4,327 across four visits. But some travel transactions don't seem to align with the conferences. On Sept. 30, 2019, he spent $200 at the Hilton in Memphis, Tenn. On Oct. 28, 2023, he spent $579 at Embassy Suites in Charleston. And on June 21, 2022, he spent $422 at the Hampton Inn in Spartanburg. Wright also spent $8,200 on food with his county card. Fast food joints got $2,130 of that money over 124 transactions, with a plurality of the charges going to Chick-fil-A (22 transactions totaling $463) and McDonald's (27 transactions totaling $220). Eighty-four of the 124 fast food purchases were under $15. Wright spent another $6,070 at restaurants, pizza places, buffets and steakhouses across 100 charges, including three $200-plus transactions: one at Souvlaki, D.C., and two at Fuddruckers. There were 13 trips to Fuddruckers and nine to Sun King buffet — in June 2018, he went to Sun King twice. Other common stops included Longhorn Steakhouse, Peach Blossom, Pizza Inn on Asheville Highway, Apollo's House of Pizza and Waffle House. City Range Steakhouse in Spartanburg and Stax's Drake House in Landrum also showed up on the statements, as did downtown Columbia's Ruth's Chris Steak House, an upscale steakhouse with $17 burgers and $60 steaks. Wright spent $68.30 during the Ruth's Chris visit in January 2022, which coincided with the S.C. Sheriff's Association conference. He also spent $268.80 at the Hilton Columbia during that trip. Video streaming and recurring payments Amazon Prime, Pure Flix, Sirius XM, OnStar, Shine on 9, Pure Clean Keto and True Fitness Online — Wright used his county card for recurring monthly payments to all these businesses. He started with faith-based video streaming service Pure Flix — home to such programming as "God's Not Dead" and VeggieTales — from February 2018 through May 2021, spending $458 in the process. In February 2023, he started paying for Amazon Prime with his county card, and continued to pay the $16.04 a month through at least April 2024, the most recent month for which records were available, spending more than $240 in the process. At Shine on 9, he's used county money for the car wash's most expensive unlimited wash plan at $45 a month, spending $585 there as of April. Meanwhile, most sheriff's deputies have stickers on their official vehicles that get them a basic car wash for free at Shine on 9. It's unclear who is covered under Wright's plan. Radio service Sirius XM has gotten $1,898 from him over the years, and OnStar, a relatively recent addition with monthly payments of $32.09, has gotten more than $160. Wright has also made a handful of health and wellness brands the beneficiaries of Spartanburg's public funds. In November 2023, December 2023 and January 2024, Wright paid more than $84 each month to Pure Clean Keto, a Florida-based diet supplement brand. From September 2023 through April 2024, Wright has made recurring monthly payments of $19.99 to a California-based vendor called True Fitness Online. His statements appear to show other fitness-related purchases around that time. In August and November of 2023, Wright spent $66.82 at fitontherun.com , which now appears to be a defunct website. And in September 2023, Wright spent $56.86 at “Tru Fitness Attire” and $84.96 at “Tru Fitness.” Gas, guns and clear blue skies Wright spent $4,712 across 218 transactions at various gas stations and convenience stores. The charges range in amounts from $1.49 to $93.90 and included Exxon, Shell, Citgo, QT, Spinx, Marathon, Lil' Cricket, Circle K, BP and 7-Eleven, among others. Exxon and QT were his most frequent stops. He also spent $1,708 at Dollar General and Family Dollar, with all but two of the 86 charges at Dollar General. Although the Sheriff's Office has a shooting range and training ammo, Wright spent $2,342 at gun shops, including T&K Outdoors, Logan and Pop's Gun Stop, S.C. Gun Co. and C&C Indoor Range, a gun shop owned by a former Spartanburg County sheriff's deputy. C&C got the lion's share of those purchases with $2,096 spent across 20 transactions. Wright, who has a pilot's license, spent $3,192 on aviation-related purchases from a variety of vendors, including $670 at Gibson & Barnes , a flight apparel purveyor that sells everything from leather jackets to pilot helmets, as well as two FAA state board exams — one was $150, and the other was $160. Wright spent $1,118 with clothing companies. Common Threads Embroidery got $385, Harrison's Workwear got $225 and HatFlow Co. (a custom hat shop) got $508. Wright made plenty of other purchases with his county card, including: Best Buy: $1,346 Tractor Supply: $781 Academy: $279 Ace Hardware: $272 Christian Supply: $108 Scuba Shop: $582 Shippers Supply: $69 Wish.com USA vending massage: $5 Verdin's Farm and Garden: $75 Vic Bailey Ford: $409 Art Lounge: $471 Spending trending upward Crangle, the government watchdog attorney, said the lax oversight of the sheriff's credit card spending "looks like a system that's clearly an invitation to abuses of office." Over the years, other public officials have faced scrutiny for their use of taxpayer funds. In 2019, a Post and Courier investigation showed that Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood used county funds to fly first class and stay at expensive hotels . Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon used his purchasing card for a $3,110 office chair. Some officials have faced charges. Fifth Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson was convicted of fraud in 2019 for using public funds to pay for travel and hotels . Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone pleaded guilty in 2020 to embezzlement for using federal and county funds for personal purchases at places like GameStop, Dick's Sporting Goods and Sam's Club. In 2022, a state grand jury indicted a Richland School District One procurement manager for misusing his purchasing card to the tune of $23,170, then lying to cover it up. And in April of this year, Charleston County Probate Judge Irvin Condon's office lost its credit card privileges after a county audit found unauthorized uses, including Condon using a card to spend several hundred dollars on Amazon.com While other public officials faced scrutiny and criminal charges for their use of public money, Wright's spending grew. Of his six highest-spending months, five of them have come since November 2022. The first time Wright spent more than $1,800 in a month was August 2019. The statement for that month shows $1,890.04 in purchases. About half of that — $975.55 — was spent at Apple.com across 13 purchases, with most of those charges being $94.99. The most expensive month for taxpayers was May 2023, when Wright spent $2,342.91. Crangle pointed to the widespread problems with credit card spending as a reason the state Legislature should pass some laws to reign in the use of county P-cards. “Once you turn people loose with credit cards," he said, "it's like giving an alcoholic the job as a manager of a liquor store." Follow Christian Boschult on Twitter at @ChrisHBoschult or contact him at 864-665-1706.
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  Publisher Name	Post & Courier (Charleston, SC)
  Publisher URL	https://www.postandcourier.com/
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  Trust Flow Score	62
  Citation Flow Score	44

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