A foreclosure lawsuit has been filed against two more of the corporations that made campaign contributions last year that have been tied to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
Bank of North Carolina filed the lawsuit last week against WKG Land Partners LLC and Back Gate Partners LLC. The bank claims those corporations have defaulted on a $500,000 loan. No court date has been set.
Shep Guyton, a Myrtle Beach lawyer who is the registered agent for both corporations, did not return a telephone call to The Sun News.
Guyton is the registered agent for 14 corporations that made $239,500 in campaign contributions that now are the focus of criminal investigations by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service.
The investigations focus on possible money laundering, tax fraud and criminal conspiracy, according to state Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, who has been interviewed by the agencies.
Edge is the only lawmaker who did not accept the campaign contributions.
The campaign donations - all in the form of sequentially numbered cashier's checks purchased on the same day at South Atlantic Bank - were given to politicians who supported a 1 percent tax increase in Myrtle Beach. Money from that tax goes to the chamber of commerce for its tourism marketing efforts.
Guyton is a former president of the chamber's board of directors. Guyton also was a member of South Atlantic Bank's board of directors until his resignation earlier this year.
Donations also were made to failed gubernatorial candidate Gresham Barrett, who did not play a role in the tax increase but was supported by chamber board members. Barrett accepted the money last year during a luncheon with chamber President Brad Dean and Mark Kelly, the chamber's lobbyist.
This is at least the fourth Guyton-related corporation facing foreclosure in the months after they made campaign contributions.
The foreclosure lawsuits have some critics of the tax increase questioning how corporations that could not pay their bills managed to funnel thousands of dollars in contributions to politicians.
Dean has said the money did not come from the chamber of commerce.
Brant Branham, the chamber's board chairman when the donations were made, has said he raised the money independently from "like-minded businessmen and women."
WKG Land Partners made contributions of $3,500 apiece to political action committees that helped re-elect Myrtle Beach City Council members.
Back Gate made 10 contributions totaling $12,500 to council candidates, state legislators and Barrett.
Bank of North Carolina said in its lawsuit that those corporations failed to repay a $500,000 loan that came due in 2008. The bank, which is the successor to Beach First National Bank, said the corporations now owe $570,245 with interest accruing at $65.02 per day.
Those corporations pledged property they own in Cypress River Plantation, located in the Burgess community, and in a shopping center at the back gate of the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base as collateral for the loan.
In addition, Guyton and business partners Edward Williams and Dean Karavan signed personal guaranties for the loan.
Williams and Karavan could not be reached for comment.
Officials with the U.S. attorney's office and the S.C. Ethics Commission said Tuesday they cannot confirm or deny that an investigation is taking place. They declined to comment further on the matter.
At least two other Guyton-related corporations are facing foreclosure in separate lawsuits filed earlier this year.
Deluxe Land Partners - which made $20,500 in donations to political candidates - failed to repay a $350,000 loan, according to Bank of North Carolina.
Garden City Partners - which made $20,500 in campaign contributions - failed to repay a $1.2 million loan, according to S.C. Bank & Trust.
In addition to the foreclosures, a partner in another corporation tied to Guyton told The Sun News that the corporation had no money to make political donations. That corporation's only asset is a piece of land.
Another corporation for which Guyton was the registered agent was dissolved nearly two years before it made donations to political candidates.
Money from the Guyton-related corporations is among $324,500 in campaign donations given to Barrett, four City Council incumbents and seven state legislators in the months after the council members and legislators passed a law that allowed a 1 percent sales tax increase in Myrtle Beach.
Most of that money goes to the chamber of commerce for advertising. The city gets about 20 percent of the funds for property tax breaks and tourism infrastructure projects.
The tax is expected to generate up to $18 million per year over the 10-year life of the legislation.
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