Ex-South Carolina sheriff pleads guilty to drug-related crimes and stealing from benevolence fund

ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) — A former South Carolina sheriff pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges that he helped steal about $80,000 from his force's benevolence fund and took pain medication that was supposed to be destroyed as part of a pill take-back program.

Chuck Wright, the former Spartanburg County sheriff, admitted his guilt to conspiring to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, conspiring to commit wire fraud and obtaining controlled substances through misrepresentation.

In a statement released by his lawyers, Wright, 60, said he lived the American dream after leaving his abusive home when he was 16 to work and live with the fire department, rising to be sheriff of the county where he was born.

“I squandered that dream job through my actions and for that I simply ask that the people of Spartanburg and my brothers and sisters in law enforcement forgive me,” Wright said, adding he takes full responsibility, will accept his sentence and will never work in law enforcement again.

The maximum penalty for the three counts combined is nearly 30 years, although Wright will likely receive a much lighter sentence. He also will have to pay at least $440,000 in restitution. A sentencing date has not been set.

Wright is at least the 12th sheriff in South Carolina to be convicted or to plead guilty to on-duty crimes in the past 15 years, for misconduct including extorting drug dealers, having inmates work at their homes, and hiring a woman and pressuring her to have sex.

Sheriffs run the law enforcement organizations in the state's 46 counties. South Carolina law gives the elected officials wide latitude over how their money is spent, what crimes their agencies concentrate on stopping and who gets hired and fired. They also provide little oversight beyond a vote by the people of each county every four years.

Beyond abusing power, there is little in common among the convicted sheriffs. They've been in small rural agencies and big, urban ones. There was a scheme to create false police reports to help clients of a friend's credit repair business. A sheriff took bribes to keep a restaurant owner's employees from being deported. One covered up an illegal arrest. And another punched a woman in the face and stole her cellphone.

State and federal agents investigated Wright and many of the other convicted sheriffs. U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling said lawlessness, even among the powerful, isn't tolerated.

“Fighting corruption is what we should do in law enforcement,” Stirling said outside court. “Nothing make a law enforcement officer madder than seeing police cross the line.”

In Wright's case, the former sheriff, along with the agency's chaplain who also pleaded guilty Thursday, plundered the fund meant to help deputies who face financial difficulties. Wright once said he needed cash to send an officer to Washington to honor a deputy killed in the line of duty. Instead the money went in his own pocket, federal prosecutors said.

Most of Wright's crimes happened as he dealt with an addiction to painkillers. Wright offered to take and dispose of close to 150 unneeded pills from friends for deputies who died or recovered from illnesses and then kept them for himself, authorities said.

Wright also used a blank check from the benevolence fund to pay for oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, writing it out to his dealer, according to court records.

Wright additionally faces more than 60 charges of ethics violations for using his county-issued credit card for personal expenses. In all, there was more than $50,000 in disputed spending, including more than $1,300 he allegedly spent at Apple's app store and almost $1,600 he paid for Sirius/XM radio, according to county spending records first obtained by The Post and Courier.

State agents also investigated Wright, but local prosecutors decide not to charge him saying the federal penalties — possible prison time and restitution payments — were greater.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lothrop Morris speaks about his role as lead prosecutor against former Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright after Wright pleaded guilty to theft and conspiracy charges on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in Anderson, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Former Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright walks out of court after pleading guilty to theft and conspiracy charges on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in Anderson, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Former Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright walks out of court after pleading guilty to theft and conspiracy charges on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in Anderson, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

FILE - Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright speaks during a news conference in front of Todd Kohlhepp's property in Woodruff, S.C., Nov. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro, File)

Former Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright is asked a question as he walks into a federal courthouse to plead guilty in Anderson, S.C., Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senators from opposite parties are joining forces in a renewed push to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, an effort that has broad public support but has repeatedly stalled on Capitol Hill.

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Republican Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida on Thursday plan to introduce legislation, first shared with The Associated Press, that would bar lawmakers and their immediate family members from trading or owning individual stocks.

It's the latest in a flurry of proposals in the House and the Senate to limit stock trading in Congress, lending bipartisan momentum to the issue. But the sheer number of proposals has clouded the path forward. Republican leaders in the House are pushing their own bill on stock ownership, an alternative that critics have dismissed as watered down.

“There’s an American consensus around this, not a partisan consensus, that members of Congress and, frankly, senior members of administrations and the White House, shouldn’t be making money off the backs of the American people,” Gillibrand said in an interview with the AP on Wednesday.

Trading of stock by members of Congress has been the subject of ethics scrutiny and criminal investigations in recent years, with lawmakers accused of using the information they gain as part of their jobs — often not known to the public — to buy and sell stocks at significant profit. Both parties have pledged to stop stock trading in Washington in campaign ads, creating unusual alliances in Congress.

In the House, for example, Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida is trying to bypass party leadership and force a vote on her own stock trading bill. Her push with a discharge petition has 79 of the 218 signatures required, the majority of them Democrats.

House Republican leaders are supporting an alternative bill that would prohibit members of Congress and their spouses from buying individual stocks but would not require lawmakers to divest from stocks they already own. It would mandate public notice seven days before a lawmaker sells a stock. The bill advanced in committee on Wednesday, but its prospects are unclear.

Gillibrand and Moody, meanwhile, are introducing a version of a House bill introduced last year by Reps. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, and Seth Magaziner, a Democrat from Rhode Island. That proposal, which has 125 cosponsors, would ban members of Congress from buying or selling individual stocks altogether.

Magaziner and other House Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, wrote in a joint statement Wednesday that they “are disappointed that the bill introduced by Republican leadership today fails to deliver the reform that is needed.”

The Senate bill from Gillibrand and Moody would give lawmakers 180 days to divest their individual stock holdings after the bill takes effect, while newly elected members would have 90 days from being sworn in to divest. Lawmakers would be prohibited from trading and owning certain other financial assets, including securities, commodities and futures.

“The American people must be able to trust that their elected officials are focused on results for the American people and not focused on profiting from their positions,” Moody wrote in response to a list of questions from the AP.

The legislation would exempt the president and vice president, a carveout likely to draw criticism from some Democrats. Similar objections were raised last year over a bill that barred members of Congress from issuing certain cryptocurrencies but did not apply to the president.

Gillibrand said the president “should be held to the same standard” but described the legislation as “a good place to start.”

“I don’t think we have to allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” Gillibrand said. “There’s a lot more I would love to put in this bill, but this is a consensus from a bipartisan basis and a consensus between two bodies of Congress.”

Moody, responding to written questions, wrote that Congress has the “constitutional power of the purse” so it's important that its members don't have “any other interests in mind, financial or otherwise.”

“Addressing Members of Congress is the number one priority our constituents are concerned with,” she wrote.

It remains to be seen if the bill will reach a vote in the Senate. A similar bill introduced by Gillibrand and GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri in 2023 never advanced out of committee.

Still, the issue has salience on the campaign trail. Moody is seeking election to her first full term in Florida this year after being appointed to her seat when Marco Rubio became secretary of state. Gillibrand chairs the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.

“The time has come," Gillibrand said. “We have consensus, and there’s a drumbeat of people who want to get this done.”

FILE -Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., speaks during the confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee for Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's choice to be director of the FBI, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

FILE - Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., leaves the Senate chamber after voting on a government funding bill at the Capitol in Washington, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)