How South Carolina could lose, and subsequently find, $1.8 billion in "missing" money has confounded state lawmakers for nearly one year. Here's what happened.

Much of the $1.8 billion was found in a bank account only ever existed on paper, but legislators are left puzzled over how the mistake happened under Treasurer Curtis Loftis.

South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis has recognized Berkeley County School District’s Nathaniel Gilmore of Goose Creek High School as the South Carolina Financial Literacy Master Teacher Program’s E

I think it’s important to note, this is not any fraud, this is not a misrepresentation, that this is just incompetence, in errors that have occurred over a period of time,” SC House Speaker Murrell Smith said.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — It turns out that $1.8 billion in South Carolina state funds weren’t just sitting in a bank account waiting to be spent. Instead, it was an accounting error compounded over years instead of being reconciled, an independent forensic audit determined.

In South Carolina, the fallout from a $1.8 billion accounting error cost the job of the state auditor, while the state treasurer is vowing to push forward with a promise of transparency. An independent audit released earlier this month found that $1.

A multi-billion-dollar mishap has put South Carolina under federal investigation – and now cost a top state official his job. How did we get here?

The results of the audit found that $1.6 billion of the $1.8 billion believed to have existed was the "result of incorrect journal entries."

This comes after an independent forensic audit determined an accounting error was responsible for nearly $2 billion mysteriously sitting in South Carolina’s bank account.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – George Kennedy, South Carolina’s State Auditor, resigned from office Thursday. Kennedy, who has served in the position since October 2015, sent a letter of resignation to Governor Henry McMaster and the State Fiscal Accountability Authority.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis, left, looks at notes before speaking at a meeting of the Legislative ...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — An audit of South Carolina's state finances finds that the puzzling $1.8 billion account mostly never existed in the first place.