Former BCSD CFO pleads guilty to state charges, sentenced to 11 years

Brantley Thomas, the former Berkeley County School District Chief Financial Officer, pleaded guilty to 35 State Grand Jury charges of public corruption on April 12. The crimes included 24 counts of embezzlement of public funds $10,000 or more, eight counts of embezzlement of public funds $10,000 or less, two counts of forgery $10,000 or more, and one count of common law misconduct in office.

Thomas was sentenced to 11 years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

The scandal broke at the beginning of 2017, when Thomas was terminated from the CFO position amid misconduct allegations, ending a 24 year career with the school district. According to federal court filings, the illegal transactions occurred between 2010 and 2016, with some documents claiming that some schemes date back to 2001.

In January 2018, Thomas pleaded guilty to 20 federal charges stemming from the embezzlement scheme. Just over one year later, on February 20, 2019, he was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison. Thomas will begin his 11 year sentence in state prison immediately following the end of his federal prison term.