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More convictions in insurance fraud ring

May 18, 2009 By

Another 13 people have been convicted on auto fraud charges in Colleton County, bringing the number of arrests in an organized fraud ring to 32. The staged-accident cases were investigated by SLED and the National Insurance Crime Bureau and prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney General. Most of the defendants are from Walterboro.

Allison Love with the South Carolina Insurance News Service says that the operation was huge.  “As far as we know, this is the largest which has ever staged accidents in the state of South Carolina.  This brings the total to 32 and there are still four more cases pending in the Colleton County court system.  What’s important for people to know is that there are people staging accidents throughout the state and that affects the cost for everyone paying insurance.” 

Love reminds everyone that the most common type of insurance fraud is committed by average citizens, not organized rings.   “A lot of people think that they’ve been paying their insurance for a long time  so when it comes time to file a claim, they inflate the claim or pad the claim.  That’s fraud and you can go to jail for that.” 

Some of the defendants will only have to pay restitution to insurance companies. Some face jail time.

You can report insurance fraud to the Insurance Fraud Hotline–1-888-95-FRAUD. All reports remain confidential.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News

“Surrender days” working in Richland County

May 18, 2009 By

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott has issued a unique proposal for persons in the county wanted on family court bench warrants. Lott has sent out more than 12-hundred letters encouraging fugitives listed on Family court bench warrants to take advantage of “surrender days.” When a persons turns themselves in they go directly before a Family Court judge instead of being sent to jail to wait for a hearing. The two remaining surrender days are today and Thursday. Monday was also designated a surrender day. Lott says the program is in its third year and has been very successful.”There is no way we can lose on this. We can save a lot of money by sending letters out and giving people the opportunity to come in. It really saves a lot of manpower and money. It was almost a no-brainer to do something like this.”

Lott says he knows of no other county in the state offering this program. Lott said he read about a similar program used in a county in a state out in the Midwest.

Lott says in the first two years of the program they have averaged about 100 fugitives turning themselves in during the three day period.. Lott says that’s 100 persons they did not have to use taxpayer money to track down. “Our main focus has been on Family Court bench warrants. These are where a parent hasn’t paid the money to their child. To us that’s a terrible crime because the kids are the ones who suffer. Even if the ex-spouses can’t get along when they don’t pay the money it’s the child that suffers.”

Lott says the program would not be a success with the cooperation of the family court and its judges and the clerks of court. Lott says anytime is a good time for family court fugitives to turn themselves into the Richland County Sheriff’s Office. ” We try to encourage them to come during these three days, but if they calls us and can’t come in during these three days and make arrangements to come in at a later time that’s fine as long as they show that they are working with us and trying to do the right thing. We will work with them.”

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News

GOP Congressmen want truce in stimulus battle

May 18, 2009 By

The battle over $700 million in federal stimulus dollars being waged by Governor Mark Sanford and the South Carolina General Assembly is reaching the eleventh hour as the official ending the legislative session is nearing. Sanford has publicly opposed the use of the stimulus money he can apply for unless it can be used to pay down debt. The White House has twice denied Sanford’s request to use the money for that purpose. The House and Senate are challenging the Governor by including the money in the $5.6 billion dollar budget bill. Sanford has to decide today if he is going to veto the bill. Indications are if he does veto it, legislators are poised to override his veto, and the issue could end up in the court system. An interested observer of the fracas is Second District Congressman Joe Wilson who hopes a compromise can be reached.”I have served in the General Assembly for 17 years and I know that the leadership of the House and Senate by working together can get this resolved. We need to pay down debt and we need to avoid recurring programs.”

Hundreds of school teachers in South Carolina have not received contracts for the 2009-10 school year. Their jobs hang in the balance as a final decision on the stimulus money is still pending. Wilson says the state needs to retain quality teachers for the public school system.

“I do know that we have a serious problem with our schools. I was stressed to read again of more job loses, more teacher loses. This is a real situation that must be addressed. Having four sons go through the school system, I know how important it is to have a qualified and dedicated group of teachers.”

First District Congressman Henry Brown says he did not vote for the stimulus bill. he says he would have like to have seen more money in the stimulus package for roads and bridges. he says that step, in his opinion, would have created more jobs. He says as for the battle over the stimulus money in his home state, he wishes to stay out of the fray.

“Once the bill was passed the money was going to be distributed some place. If it doesn’t come to South Carolina, it will be going to North Carolina, Texas or some other place. I know the people in our state can use the funds, but that’s between the Governor and the Legislature to iron it out.”

Filed Under: Economy, News, Politics & Government

Shaw Air Force Base tests combat readiness

May 18, 2009 By

At any moment the airmen at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter could be called off to war. The Inspector General, or IG, wants to be sure these men and women of the 20th Fighter Wing are ready when called, so he’s coming in June as part of an ORI, Operations Readiness Inspection that happens every five years. As Lieutenant Colonel Marc Dauteuil puts it, it’s almost like filming a movie on a Hollywood set that puts these airmen in mock war situations.

“We carve out a certain portion of it and we pretend that that portion, we call it Base X, it becomes a deployed environment, in other words, we have taken a bunch of airplanes, a bunch of people, weapons, whatever we need, so we turn that section of the base here in to that combat environment and we fight a war,” says Dauteuil.

The Inspector General says he will be looking for, “A safe flying operation. We recognize the fact that we are not actually at war when we’re, I’ll call it playing the game, I guess you could also say proving the point, uh, reacting to attacks, that we’re still doing our job by the book to insure that not only to get them launched safely to take care of the people that are flying in them, but obviously if you don’t do it right and something doesn’t work, then you send a guy in harm’s way,” says Dauteuil.

Dauteuil says it may seem like they’re filming a movie, but in reality- it’s getting them ready for deployment.

“It’s a little bit beyond what you saw in ‘Top Gun,’ ya know, just coming in and talking about it, but no kidding, they’re reviewing the tapes we’re recording on what’s going on in the air crafts and obviously they’re live out there on the ramp evaluating our operations,” saya Dauteuil.

The exercises will last for 48 hours straight and will test the “fighters” with air crashes, explosions, ground attacks and other war dilemmas. Dauteuil says they write out a full script that displays the mock situation for the full 48-hour time span. The Inspector General will arrive on the week of June 14 at the Shaw Air Force Base.

Filed Under: Military, News

“Take the money,” says McConnell

May 18, 2009 By

Governor Mark Sanford only wants to use the part of the stimulus package that he controls to pay down state debt- -an idea the federal government rejected. Now, some members on the Senate floor, like Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell of Charleston, say the governor should just take the money and be done with it because, in McConnell’s words, “it is what it is.”

“We’re stuck with the bill. It’s a terrible thing what we’re doing in this country with red ink. I don’t agree with the stimulus plan, but it defies common sense to me to get stuck with the bill and not get any benefits out of it,” says McConnell.

Those benefits include, he says, “We can make sure that Meals on Wheels is funded, we can make sure that regional mental health centers can get funded this year, we can make sure that trust funds are not raided.”

McConnell explains why he didn’t vote in favor of the Davis-Ryberg amendment that agreed to set money aside for state debt.

“What they didn’t tell people is that they raided $40 million in reserves out of the budget and control board. They didn’t tell people that they went into the lottery account and took $44 million that was to go to K-12 education and had to use that to pump into life scholarships because they didn’t have the money to fund there,” says McConnell.

McConnell says if the governor doesn’t take the money, other states will reap the benefits of money South Carolina will have to pay back regardless. And the reason the nation is in the trouble it’s in financially, according to McConnell:

“Because this country has failed to get off its addiction to oil, and what triggered the house of cards starting to collapse is when the price of gas went up to $4 a gallon, discretionary spending stopped, the economy started sliding, revenue started sliding, and then like dominos, it’s falling in,” says McConnell.

Filed Under: Economy, News, Politics & Government
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