BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.–According to Berkeley County School District officials, ex- Chief Financial Officer Brantley Thomas admitted to stealing nearly $400,000 from the district.
The board revealed that information during a Tuesday night meeting where board members also voted to fire its accounting firm and called for an internal audit.
In mid-January, the school district announced that Greene, Finney, and Horton, LLC revealed that BCSD had again received the highest financial opinion following its annual independent review of its fiscal practices.
The firm’s audit reported that annual fund revenues from all sources in 2016 for BCSD totaled $363.1 million. The report also noted that the district maintains an adequate fund balance for emergencies, discretionary funding needs, and for covering potential budgetary shortfalls from the state.
However, a month later after the audit results were announced, Brantley was fired from the school district. On Sunday, February 5, 2017, the BCSD was contacted by its financial institution Wells Fargo Bank requesting a meeting with BCSD’s legal counsel and BCSD officials and representatives of Wells Fargo and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Board members say ten large refund checks which were issued to the district were converted by Thomas to cashier’s checks and then deposited into Thomas’ own account at his bank. The checks totaled $382,251.61 and date back to July 12, 2012.
Thomas had been employed with the school district since 1993. At this time, Brantley has not been charged with a crime.
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