Cruising down the interstate at 70 mph – with a truck on one side, a guard rail on the other, and a stack of cars and trucks in front and behind – it became abundantly clear this morning why the laws of the road are so vitally important to our safety.

One person gets a wild-haired idea of scooting off across the lanes – all wllly-nilly – and it’s a multi-car pile-up that slows everyone down.

Definitely, not the kind of person you want driving beside you.

That’s why the SC Department of Revenue was so quick to call Jeff Davis to the mat with his special needs scholarship program Palmetto Kids First (better known as PKF). Apparently he and his for-my-profit-non-profit had some issues the Department felt it needed to look into.

You see, special needs scholarship funding organizations in South Carolina are responsible for doing two things:

• Raising money
• Distributing scholarships to children with special needs.

Both important and noble purposes. Seems, though, that Jeff Davis and PKF had some very questionable practices –20 to be exact!

Back in 2014, the SC Department of Revenue took a deep-dive audit into Jeff Davis and his for-my-own-profit-non-profit organization, looking at state and federal laws like…

• the South Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act
• the South Carolina Solicitation of Charitable Funds Act, and
• the South Carolina Forgery, Larceny, Embezzlement, False Pretenses, and Cheats Act

Wow! That last one’s a doozy.

In its audit of Jeff Davis’ pay-to-play program, the SC Department of Revenue

“reported improprieties in PKF’s operations, as well as issues involving Jeff Davis, who filed for bankruptcy in 2011, and who is closely associated with PKF.”

Their report says clearly…

“A public records search into Mr. Davis revealed multiple concerns including bankruptcy, interim suspension and eventual revocation of a professional designation, litigation involving embezzlement, use of client funds for personal and business expenses, forgery, as well as pleading the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination during deposition testimony in a lawsuit.”

Don’t know about you, but that’s certainly not the type of person I’d want handling millions of dollars in scholarship funds for special needs kids, now is it?

Absolutely not.

The Department of Revenue went on to say of Jeff Davis and PKF…

“Based on its review during the Audit Period, the Department has identified twenty (20) findings as violations or potential violations of Provisos 1.85 and 1.80, or the laws governing tax-exempt charitable organizations.”

…one of which was that…

 “PKF altered the [SC Department of Revenue’s] Form TC-57A and its instructions by superimposing its logo onto the form to give the appearance that the form was specific to PKF.”

Guess we need to add plagiarism to that list as well.

pla·gia·rism
/ˈplājəˌrizəm/

noun

1. the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

I mean, who in the world would
take a tax department form claim it as their own?

Just remember, the Department of Revenue looked at Jeff Davis’s for-my-profit-non-profit under the Forgery, Larceny, Embezzlement, False Pretenses, and Cheats Act.

Coming up… what all DID the Department of Revenue find?