Investigation of Jasper County misuse of funds continues

An employee of the Jasper County School District still owes the school board an explanation for allegedly misusing about $54,000 in public money, according to a board member.

The certified employee may also request a closed-door meeting with the board, but he or she has yet to complete a written statement about the allegations, member Jerold Murray said Wednesday. Though the board voted Dec. 30 in favor of terminating the employee, that person has not yet been fired, Murray said.

An internal investigation of the possible fraud continues.

Murray says the district has not reported the incident to law enforcement.

"We're going to make sure we're on solid footing before we do that," he said. "The legal team is working on it."

The district has declined to release the name of the employee, the source of the money or what it was allegedly spent on.

Murray said the money was spent on "non-school items" that had nothing to do with students.

It does not appear the alleged misuse of funds is related to an investigation into the district's operations that the FBI and IRS launched in the spring of 2014.

At that time, an assistant U.S. attorney for South Carolina had asked the district to maintain all paper and electronic financial documents, minutes of all board meetings, employment files for the superintendent, assistant superintendent and department heads, and all paper and electronic correspondence between district employees.

District spokesman John Williams said last week that it has been 16 months since the FBI contacted the district about that investigation.

He said there was no additional information to release Wednesday.

Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.

Related content:

• Jasper County schools investigating possible fraud, January 3, 2016
• Jasper County School District under investigation by IRS, FBI, March 5, 2015

This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Investigation of Jasper County misuse of funds continues."