FBI Probes Into Myrtle Beach Mafia

Under the RICO statutes of the Federal Government, the FBI has intensified its investigation into matters surrounding a local attorney, Shep Guyton, while serving his time on the board of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. The investigation's primary focus is centered on possible racketeering and money laundering conducted by Guyton and associates.

Brad Dean President of Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce

Just over $300,000 in contributions were given to South Carolina politicians by Myrtle Beach Area Chamber associates after the Myrtle Beach city council passed a 1% sales tax charged to all tourists who rent hotel rooms and make other purchases inside the city limits of Myrtle Beach. This Myrtle Beach Chamber tax raises as much as $18 million for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber annually giving them great leverage over the city of Myrtle Beach in the areas of politics and business.

Suspicious contributions were issued in the form of cashier’s checks with sequential numbers all written on the same day from South Atlantic Bank. Guyton, who is the central person of interest in the investigation, also served on South Atlantic's board at the time. Brad Dean, Myrtle Beach Area Chamber President, has admitted to handing out some of the checks personally. Checks were issued on businesses that were no longer operating at the time when the checks were contributed. Other checks were issued on businesses, of which, when the business owners were called, those owners denied making the contributions.

The RICO investigation, code named Operation Myrtle Beach Mafia, gives the federal government sweeping authority to place electronic surveillance devices on the personal phones, business phones, cell phones, email, and, even Facebook accounts, of those persons of interest in the investigation. Suspicions are that all current and some former Myrtle Beach Area Chamber Board Members are currently under Federal surveillance. It is also suspected that several members of City Hall and several local city politicians, including city council members are also under surveillance. In fact, everyone who participated in or is associated with distributing the funds, receiving the contributions, or attempting to cover up issues surrounding the funds are considered currently in question.

The investigation has reportedly been expanded based on a copy of text messages supposedly obtained during  the surveillance sent from a former Chamber Board member to a business associate. This former board member's text supposedly indicated that a past chamber board member had purchased a home for Attorney Guyton with the deed placed in the name of Guyton's father. If proven true, the ramifications of such an event could possibly indicate a conspiracy of silence at a minimum.

Guyton has not returned any phone calls left by local media for the past few months. In its latest election, the Chamber appointed a Pawleys Island attorney as the current President of the Board and has also gone silent on the matter.

Despite ongoing damaging reports weekly in the local Sun News newspaper, there have been no calls from the current Chamber Board for an internal investigation.

The Chamber does have a Facebook page named Myrtle Beach South Carolina and a Visit Myrtle Beach website. Since the investigations began, the chamber no longer prominently represents itself as the Chamber of Commerce on Facebook.