Governor Sanford Wants Investigation of Carolina First Bank

Robert Kittle
Published: November 11, 2008

Columbia, SC—Gov. Mark Sanford has asked the U.S. Treasury Secretary to investigate Greenville-based Carolina First bank to see whether it’s “gaming the system” to get federal bailout money. He says that’s just one example of why citizens from across the state need to contact their elected officials in Washington and urge them to oppose additional bailouts, and to have better oversight and transparency of the funds already committed.

Carolina First announced in September that CEO Mack Whittle would retire “by the end of the year.“ But according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Whittle retired effective October 27th. His retirement package includes a “golden parachute” of $18 million. Now, the bank says it will apply for between $115 million and $347 million in federal bailout money. Restrictions on the bailout money prevent it from being used to give CEOs large retirement or severance payouts.

“It doesn’t pass the smell test,“ Gov. Sanford told reporters in his office Monday. “There’s some serious unintended consequences going on out there when people are moving up, possibly—we don’t know this for certain, but possibly, the date of departure so you can pay out $18 million, which wouldn’t be allowed if you took the federal funds,“ the governor says.

His letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says about Carolina First, “I’d appreciate you looking into this and seeing if there is anything that can be done to keep each one of the taxpayers I represent from in essence having this $18 million, or other millions like it, plucked from their respective pocketbooks and wallets.“

The governor says he’s against the federal bailouts in general, and hopes people will register their opposition to another proposed round being talked about in Washington. “They’ve already said that this is just the ‘first round’ of stimulus package. So you’ll see multiple different bailouts for a variety of different groups. But inevitably, somebody’s got to pay those bills, and it will be that forgotten man or that forgotten woman playing by the rules in South Carolina who does so,“ he says.