A new search warrant outlined thousands in additional spending by a group at the center of an alleged criminal scheme to buy influence in the North Carolina state legislature, including spending on golfing, at strip clubs, on a vacation property and with the Carolina Panthers.
North Carolina investigators have been examining the finances of the group and earlier brought criminal charges against four lobbyists in connection with trips it organized with state lawmakers.
The group, Greater Carolina, helped organize at least two tours of Kentucky bourbon country for Republican state lawmakers in 2022 and 2024 that investigators now say were funded by liquor and gambling companies seeking favorable legislation in North Carolina.
Four lobbyists for the companies allegedly behind the Kentucky trips have been criminally charged with arranging for the lawmakers to be given what authorities say are illegal gifts through the companies’ donations to Greater Carolina. All are fighting the Wake County charges and have pleaded not guilty.
No current or former lawmakers have been charged, nor has Greater Carolina or its leadership. However, the new warrant says details of Greater Carolina’s spending “may be evidence” of criminal activity beyond the Kentucky trips.
The warrant highlights nearly $80,000 in spending from 2022 to 2024 throughout the Southeast seemingly on strip clubs, sports and a beach rental, including:
$10,981.14 in August 2022 at a Topgolf in Atlanta.$26,454 combined on the Carolina Panthers in 2023 and 2024.$26,602.84 for a weeklong vacation rental in Emerald Isle in June 2024.$11,868.80 in August 2024 to a company described as owning a gentleman’s club near Tampa, Florida.$3,260 in August 2024 to a company described as owning a gentleman’s club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
While previous search warrants have named some of the lawmakers on the Kentucky bourbon trail tours, the new warrant doesn’t say whether any lawmakers, lobbyists or anyone else attended these activities. The warrant also doesn’t indicate that any of the companies involved were aware of any potential criminal behavior.
The Greater Carolina treasurer named in the warrant didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday. In the past, Greater Carolina has described the allegations in the investigation into the Kentucky trips as “overblown,” WRAL reported.
The 2022 Kentucky trip it arranged for lawmakers flew under the radar. But the 2024 trip attracted media attention, and eventually the ongoing criminal investigation, after an employee at one of the distilleries complained online of the politicians’ boorish behavior.
The legislature voted in 2023 to legalize sports betting, which launched in 2024. Lawmakers have tweaked the law since then, including in the most recent state budget, which contained several changes for sports betting as well as new authorization for prediction markets.
Like many politically active groups, Greater Carolina is set up as a nonprofit focused on educating the general public. Greater Carolina’s official mission was to provide education about sports betting, according to the warrant. Other nonprofits similarly organized under section 501(c)4 of the tax code are often referred to as “dark money” groups and list their public political activities as part of their educational mission.
Their nonprofit status allows them to keep much of the information about who’s funding them, and how they’re spending that money, secret from the general public.
The search warrant, however, says the spending the State Bureau of Investigation detailed has no apparent educational value. And since those activities were paid for with money the group raised from donors under its nonprofit status, the warrant says, the SBI has probable cause to investigate for evidence of obtaining property by false pretenses, a felony.