In another bizarre twist of the Thornblade saga that has rocked the interior of South Carolina in recent days, several law enforcement sources and prosecutors have confirmed to this news medium that the United States Secret Service (USSS) is involved in at least one investigation upscale neighborhood and country club.
According to our sources, agents from the USSS – a division of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – should visit the club in the coming days in order to follow up on information previously provided to the agency.
What kind of information? Good question …
As our readers are already well aware, there are several angles to this story … any of which could have motivated the involvement of this particular federal law enforcement sector.
As noted in a post on Friday, we are looking at three separate Thornblade scandals: 1) allegations of possible embezzlement involving the neighborhood golf club, 2) allegations of a “prostitution ring” (or “sex chain”) ) involving several residents of the neighborhood, and 3) allegations involving an “athletics team at a government-run high school near Taylors, SC” that would be in some way connected with the prostitution / sex network charges.
We have also been informed of blackmail allegations related to the investigation – an investigation that all of our sources agree is in its infancy and, according to a prosecutor, “jurisdictionally nebulous”.
Club officials acknowledged the existence of serious financial irregularities related to their operations – including alleged credit card fraud that was first reported this year to the Greenville County sheriff’s office.
They did not comment on the other allegations – although, according to our sources, one of the central figures in the alleged sex ring worked in the club in some capacity.
Amid all these claims, what is the nexus for Secret Service agents to investigate?
In addition to their well-known task of providing executive protection to federal officials – including the president – USSS agents also investigate “credit card fraud, electronic and banking fraud, computer network breaches, ransomware and other cyber financial crimes” from according to the agency’s website.
Often, they conduct such investigations, in other cases, they provide logistical support for state or local law enforcement agencies.
According to our sources, in the Thornblade case, the USSS received information “directly” – although we have not been able to identify the nature or source of that information (or whether it was also provided to local authorities). At the time this book was written, we still had no news from anyone at the agency on the record about what is happening in Thornblade – although this is not uncommon in pending federal investigations.
Since our original article on the Thornblade saga was published last Thursday, this medium has been inundated with information related to this high profile story. Specifically, we are named after several individuals who are rumored to have been involved in various aspects of these scandals – as well as several narratives detailing their involvement.
Obviously, we are examining all this information very carefully with our network of sources in the hope of separating the truth from the rumor … measuring twice to cut just once, as the expression says.
Again, anyone with information should contact us through our tip line (as always, we keep our sources confidential).
-FITSNews
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