Nobody knows what for

US state finds mysterious account with 1.8 billion dollars

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster finds the incident "not confidence-inspiring".(Bild: AFP)

Everyone is happy when they find some cash they never expected to find in a jacket pocket or the back of a sofa. In the US state of South Carolina, the sensational discovery of 1.8 billion US dollars in a mysterious state account is currently causing less delight. Nobody knows where the money came from or what it is intended for.

"It doesn't exactly inspire confidence," explained the Governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, after auditors became aware of the mysterious account. The state accumulated almost two billion dollars there over a period of ten years, as the AP news agency reported. "It's as if you walk into your bank and the bank president says, 'We have a lot of money in our vault, but we just don't know who it belongs to,'" Republican Senator Larry Grooms tried to make a comparison. 

Governor sees it positively: "No money lost"
No one knows where the handsome sum came from or what it is intended for. "But the good news is that no money has been lost," McMaster can also see something good in the financial scandal. Government accountants are now trying to solve the mystery surrounding the account. 

Accounting chaos cost auditor his job in 2023
This is not the first time that the state's accounting department has caused a negative stir. Just last year, the chief auditor had to resign: His office had previously double-booked money in university accounts for years. The conversion of a computer system in the 2010s had led to this mishap. The resulting error amounted to 3.5 billion dollars.

Senate committee to clarify the matter
A special Senate committee, chaired by Senator Grooms, has now been set up to investigate the new case. This committee has already been able to establish that communication between the Treasury and the State Auditor's Office is inadequate. Next week, State Auditor Brian Gaines and State Treasurer Curtis Loftis will testify before the committee.

Until the matter is resolved, the mysterious billions are expected to remain in the account. "That's a lot of money and there's no reason to rush to spend it," the governor explained. Probably not the worst idea: the account has now earned almost 200 million dollars in interest.