South Carolina Senate votes to remove Treasurer Curtis Loftus after Article 15, Section 3 hearing

Senators in the South Carolina Senate voted 33–8 to adopt a resolution under Article 15, Section 3 of the state constitution to remove State Treasurer Curtis Loftus after a Committee of the Whole hearing that ran all day and included presentations from constitutional subcommittee members, the treasurer and his lawyers, outside forensic accountants and multiple state officials.

The hearing focused on a long‑running accounting anomaly—an unexplained balance shown in SKIS fund 0993 and described by the subcommittee as a $1,800,000,000 discrepancy—that outside forensic accountants reviewed. Senator Grama (chairman of the Senate constitutional subcommittee) summarized the presenters’ case to the body, saying the treasurer “has broken the public trust” by failing to ensure accurate reconciliations and by mounting what the subcommittee described as a sustained campaign of obfuscation.

Why this matters: The Senate presenters argued the magnitude and duration of the errors, combined with what they described as repeated failures to notify the General Assembly and a threat to publish detailed state bank/fund architecture, demonstrated the “willful neglect of duty or other reasonable cause” that Article 15, Section 3 makes a basis for removal. Counsel for the treasurer urged senators to weigh due‑process concerns and to note the forensic review’s central finding that no cash was missing from bank accounts; the treasurer maintained there was no secret bank account and said, “There is no missing money, and all cash and investments are accounted for.”

Most important facts

- The Senate met as a Committee of the Whole for an Article 15, Section 3 removal…