South Carolina Comptroller Resigns After $3.5B Error

The Associated Press reports:

Embattled South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom will resign next month after a $3.5 billion accounting error in the year-end financial report he oversaw. The state’s top accountant will leave the elected post he has held for 20 years on April 30.

The Senate panel investigating the error issued a damning report last week that suggested Eckstrom resign or face removal “for willful neglect of duty.” As recently as last Wednesday, Eckstrom had said he would not quit.

A certified public accountant, Eckstrom, 74, spent four years as state treasurer before assuming his current office. He has run unopposed in the past two elections and last faced a Republican primary challenger in 2010.

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