IN FOOD: Try pork tenderloin this holiday season
Clarendon District 2 trustee Fleming suspended SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2014
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LOCAL SPORTS
Despite rumors, RB Williams set to become a Tar Heel
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Jingle, jingle, jingle
Wreck claims man’s life 65-year-old was struck a week ago FROM STAFF REPORTS
PHOTOS BY KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
The Sumter Civic Apprentice Company, above, dances to “Elves and Ornaments” during the annual Jingle With the Arts on Saturday at Patriot Hall. The Elsa and Olaf dolls, right, dance for the crowd at Patriot Hall.
A Sumter County man died Monday night, five days after a vehicle struck him from behind during a crash along S.C. 441. Sumter County Coroner Harvin Bullock identified the deceased as John Olden. The 65-year-old Wedgefield man sustained blunt-force trauma during last week’s collision that led to his death. Officials indicate he died sometime after 10 p.m. Monday at Palmetto Health Richland in Columbia. An autopsy is scheduled for this morning. The crash took place about 4:15 p.m. Dec. 10 near the intersection of Eagle Road along
SEE WRECK, PAGE A6
Sanford received payouts from lender Mortgage broker accused of deceiving customers CHARLOTTE (AP) — Soon after taking office, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina accepted six-figure stock payouts from an online mortgage broker accused by regulators of deceiving its customers. The two Republicans served as directors at Tree.com, the Charlotte-based corporate parent of the website LendingTree. As board members, they were entitled to large chunks of restricted company stock if they held their positions long enough. Both resigned after their election victories, which would have rendered their unvested stock worthless had the board not taken special action to provide them early payouts. McCrory and Sanford deny they did anything improper by accepting the stock payouts, which were not fully described in their ethics statements.
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Their timing and total value are only being revealed now, as the result of an Associated Press investigation into the company’s financial records and interviews with Tree.com officials. Early vesting of restricted shares for departing directors is not unheard of in the corporate world. However, more than a dozen securities lawyers and ethics experts told the AP that such stock payouts are uncommon for elected officials and raise significant concerns. These experts gave differing opinions about whether laws were broken. But “there is no question (this) raises a host of red flags for prosecutors and regulators,” said Jacob Frenkel, who handled corruption cases as a federal prosecutor and served as senior counsel in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement.
AP FILE PHOTO
U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., discusses his first months back in Congress during an interview in Mount Pleasant on Dec. 18, 2013. Soon after taking office, Sanford and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory each accepted six-figure stock payouts from Tree. com, an online mortgage broker that regulators have accused of violating state and federal laws, according to financial records and the company’s chief executive.
DEATHS, B6 Lisa P. Smith Mary Reed David Brailsford Jr. Martha K. Boykin Lorraine DeMunn John R. Hobbs
Isabell P. Lesaine Mary Louise Goodman Robert DeBerry Gregory L. Robinson Curtis Lee Langley Jr. John M. Olden
3 sentenced in Shaw AFB fraud scheme BY RAYTEVIA EVANS ray@theitem.com Three men were sentenced to a collective five years and eight months of incarceration for their connection to a scheme to defraud Shaw Air Force Base through various construction contracts. According to U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles, James Autry “Audi” Clemens, 60, of Johnston, was sentenced to four years; Larry Baker, 64, of Cameron, received a sentence of 15 months; and Steven Crandall, 59, of Salisbury, North Carolina, was sentenced to five months. “These conspirators took funds away from the warfighter,” said special agent in charge John F. Khin, who works with the Defense
SEE FRAUD SCHEME, PAGE A6
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ANOTHER LOVELY DAY
3 SECTIONS, 24 PAGES VOL. 120, NO. 53
Sunny to partly cloudy today; mostly cloudy tonight HIGH 61, LOW 36
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