Columbia, SC (WLTX) - The FBI has confirmed that they are looking into the spending habits of 5th Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) also has what they call a "preliminary inquiry underway."
Johnson is the lead prosecutor for all criminal cases in Kershaw and Richland Counties.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the watchdog group PAPR (Public Access to Public Records) has obtained nearly 40,000 financial documents connected to the solicitor's office. Those documents are from January 2010 until December of 2017.
News 19 spent days combing through some of the information and found bank statements that showed money issued from the solicitor's narcotics seizure account that went towards the payments of credit cards.
One of the cards was a business account issued to Johnson.
On April 14, 2017, $10,000 was moved from the narcotics account and transferred to his business credit card account.
According to South Carolina law, money seized in drug busts and received by the solicitors office "must be used in matters relating to the prosecution of drug offenses and litigation of drug-related matters."
However, in that same month bank statements show that credit card was charged $2,136 by the Cabrera Imperial by Cosmos hotel in Bogota, Colombia.
There was another charge to the JW Marriott Hotel in Quito, Ecuador for $657.
Two other checks for $10,000 were issued to different Bank of America credit card accounts in that same month.
The question is, if these trips to South America were related to the prosecution of drug offenses or litigation of drug-related matters.
We reached out to Johnson's office to ask him about the money transfer and his spending habits, but so far we have not heard back from him.
