To tell our stories (here and here) about the current state of affairs in Thornblade – a suburban upscale neighborhood and country club near Greer, South Carolina – generated a wave of reactions would be an understatement.
“Drama Thornblade is all someone is talking about here in Greenville,” one of our country sources told us this week. “Many rumors. I hope you discover the facts. “
We are certainly doing our best on this front … just as we did our best to find out the facts about scandals involving the former Greenville County sheriff Will Lewis and the Mauldin police department, among other prominent stories that appeared exclusively on our pages.
Basically, we are looking at three separate Thornblade scandals: 1) allegations of possible embezzlement involving the neighborhood country club, 2) allegations of a “prostitution ring” (or sex network) involving several neighborhood residents, and 3 ) allegations involving an “athletics team at a government-run high school near Taylors, SC” that is said to be in some way linked to the prostitution / sex network charges.
An addendum to this list: Since our original stories were published, this media outlet has learned that upstate police officers have been informed of “possible blackmail” in connection with the prostitution / sex network rumors.
*****
RELATED | Thornblade scandals
*****
As we continue to collect information from our network of sources on these matters, Thornblade interim general manager Steve Munch distributed an email on Thursday night in response to our coverage of club finances.
According to Munch, our articles contained “a combination of charges and innuendo related to club-related activities”.
Suggestion? Let’s see it …
“The board has made every effort to inform members about the club’s current financial situation and the steps being taken to address it,” wrote Munch. “Our goal from day one is to be completely transparent.”
Munch added that “despite the suggestions” made by our coverage, “the facts remain the same”.
At that point, he acknowledged that the board was preparing to vote on an “assessment” to cover what he described as “an operating loss in our fiscal year ended March 31”.
“In addition to a problem (unauthorized use of American Express), there appears to be no criminal activity involved,” wrote Munch.
On the issue of “unauthorized use of American Express”, Munch wrote that “a former employee obtained an American Express card resulting in unauthorized charges of $ 110,000”.
“We contacted the Greenville County Sheriff’s Department in May and asked them to conduct a criminal investigation,” he added. “We are assisting in this investigation with legal advice”.
(Click to view)
(Via: Getty Images)
At the time of writing, the Greenville Sheriff’s Office investigation into the club’s finances is the only known open investigation involving Thornblade or his country club.
One of our Thornblade sources confirmed this week that the “evaluation” of members would indeed be voted on this weekend – although we were told that the amount requested was much less than the $ 5,000 per “surcharge” member that we were initially quoted for.
“The valuation is $ 2,000 for full-fledged golf members and lower for other classes of members,” said the source, adding that “the need arose for an ex (chief financial officer) not to prepare accurate financial statements for management review. and the council ”.
Another source confirmed this information, adding that “junior” club members would pay a $ 1,000 assessment, while “athletic members” would pay slightly less than that amount – again, assuming the assessment is approved.
“Both management and the board could have done a much better job in their fiduciary functions and steps have been taken to establish a framework to prevent this from happening again,” acknowledged our source.
Echoing Munch’s email, this source confirmed that the credit card problem was “the ONLY known case of malfeasance”.
“Everything else was due to inaccurate financial reports prepared by the former CFO,” said the source. “If the assessment is approved, the club’s cash position will be restored with sufficient working capital to sustain operations at the revised budget levels, taking into account the impact of COVID on the club.”
How much did this alleged “inaccurate financial report” cost the club? According to a June 2020 club email obtained through this medium, a problem allegedly involved “the failure to record approximately $ 335,000 in expenses made through manual checks”.
This email also referred to the credit card scandal and cited a cash balance for the month of March 2020 that was “exaggerated by $ 570,000 compared to the actual bank statement”.
Wow …
The club has a total of 600 members, we are informed. In addition, it is worth emphasizing to our readers that not all Thornblade residents are club members – not all club members are Thornblade residents.
So … what do these club sources tell us about reports related to the prostitution ring? And the college staff?
“Keep digging,” said a source, adding that “every word” in these reports was “accurate”.
We intend to continue digging, however, another source has told us in no uncertain terms to proceed with caution when following these lines of investigation …
“Be careful, these monsters are high-profile public figures in Greenville,” wrote the source. “Some are lawyers and are extremely litigious.”
Stay tuned … we look forward to keeping our readers up to date on the latest information we can discover related to this ongoing saga.
-FITSNews
*****
WANT TO TURN OFF THE SOUND?
Is there anything you would like to say in response to one of our stories? We have an open mic policy! Send your own letter to the editor (or guest column) by email HERE. Do you have a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Have a technical question or failure to report? CLICK HERE.
Flag: Getty