A former clerk of court in Loris, South Carolina, is facing new charges after investigators say he quietly raised his own hourly pay across 44 consecutive biweekly pay periods. Todd Keith Massey turned himself in Wednesday on breach of trust with fraudulent intent, grand larceny of $5,000 or more, and violations of the state Ethics, Government Accountability and Campaign Reform Act, according to the 15th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Warrants allege Massey’s approved rate was $16.98 an hour, but between June 2021 and January 2023 he paid himself anywhere from $22.82 up to $46.26 an hour without approval from city council or the mayor. All told, investigators say he collected about $55,183.02 more than his approved salary. It’s not his first legal issue: he pleaded guilty in April 2025 to embezzling roughly $70,000 from the nonprofit Giving Hope Gardens, and in February 2026 he was arrested in a separate North Myrtle Beach case involving botched cabinet renovations.
For communities across the Suncoast and really anywhere with a small city hall, this story raises familiar questions about oversight. Payroll at small municipalities often runs through a handful of people, and when the person cutting the checks is also the person keeping the records, things can slip through the cracks for a long time. What do you think should be done to prevent this kind of thing?
