Official’s Firm Profits Handsomely from State Fund

“If people do a good job then I leave them — that way you have a known quantity,” Leatherman, R-Florence and the Senate Finance Committee chairman, was quoted in a local newspaper as saying. “He’s done a superb job and will continue to do a superb job. The retirement fund has about $27 billion. It’s a huge, huge responsibility, and he’s done a great job with it.”

Some would dispute Leatherman’s assessment of Williams’ tenure as chairman of the seven-member investment commission – particularly Curtis Loftis, a commission member and the state treasurer, who has battled Williams publicly on more than one occasion.

What hasn’t received as much public scrutiny is Williams’ other connections to state government.

The 10-attorney law firm of Willcox, Buyck & Williams, which is managed by 67-year-old Williams, has fared well in recent years representing government agencies in the Palmetto State, a review by The Nerve found.

In 29 of the firm’s cases that closed between July 1, 2012, and March 31, a total of $754,552 in legal expenses was paid through the state Insurance Reserve Fund (IRF), which insures state and local government agencies for liability and property damage claims, according to online records recently posted by the S.C. Comptroller General’s Office.

The paid expenses ranged from $2,298 to $112,971, with an average of $26,019. Expenses listed in Insurance Reserve Fund records include defendant attorney fees as well as other legal costs, such as expert witness fees, according to a spokeswoman at the S.C. Budget and Control Board, which oversees the IRF, though the records don’t give breakdowns of the costs.

Read the full story at TheNerve.org.