The mystery of where the money came from is still unsolved
A big mystery came to light when US state authorities discovered an untouched secret bank account with $1.8 billion in it — and no one knows where it came from. The South Carolina government has discovered that one of its bank accounts contains almost two billion dollars, but no one has any idea who put the money there or why. Senator Larry Grooms said his investigative team still does not have information from the Treasury Department about where those billions were supposed to go.
The South Carolina government discovered it had $1.8 billion in one of its bank accounts, but they they have no idea who put the money there and why, writes the Daily Mail.
Senator Larry Grooms, who is leading the investigation into the money mystery, said his investigative team still does not have information from the Treasury Department about where the money was supposed to go.
«It's like walking into your bank, and the president of the bank tells you that we have a lot of money in the vault, but we just don’t know who it belongs to,” Senator Grooms said, according to the AP.
Until the origin of the money is determined , Grooms proposed legislation that would allow him to transfer a large sum of money into an account in a «safe deposit box» where it would earn interest.
The state's chief accountant, the elected Republican comptroller general, resigned last year when his office began duplicating higher education accounts, resulting in a $3.5 billion paper miscalculation.
The initial cause of the problem was a change in the state's computer system in 2010, notes the Daily Mail.
State Senate leaders said that while investigative accountants are still working to clean up the chaos, it appears money was moved from one place to another to help balance the state's finances whenever they were thrown out of balance.
The South Carolina Senate recently approved a proposal now heading to the House that would allow voters to decide whether to appoint a comptroller general to the position.
Unless the treasurer can explain why the money in that account exists in the first place.< /p>
However, the Daily Mail notes, state officials have not been provided with any information that would reveal the source of the $1.8 billion, and the reason for the errors in the bank accounts remains undisclosed.
“This does not inspire confidence. But the good news is that the money isn't missing,» Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said.
Republican Treasurer Curtis Loftis claimed he deposited funds into the mystery account and earned nearly $200 million in interest for the state .
This raised concerns that Loftis had not informed the General Assembly of the existence of money that they had either set aside for government agencies or that may have been in a trust fund.
In a letter to Senator Grooms dated March 14, Loftis said that not only was it not his office's responsibility, but that the comptroller general was «attempting to shift the responsibility for putting things in order to the Treasurer.»
Loftis said his team investigated the account for thousands of hours and that they were denied access to materials or a meeting with the Office of the Comptroller General.