Earle Elias Morris, Jr. (July 14, 1928;

Pickens, South Carolina Pickens, formerly called Pickens Courthouse, is a city in and the county seat of Pickens County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,126 at the 2010 census. Pickens changed its classification from a town to a city in 1998, but i ...

– February 11, 2011) was an American Democratic politician, who served in both houses of the

South Carolina General Assembly The South Carolina General Assembly, also called the South Carolina Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of South Carolina. The legislature is bicameral and consists of the lower South Carolina House of Representatives and ...

. Morris served as the 81st

Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina The lieutenant governor of South Carolina is the second-in-command to the governor of South Carolina. Beyond the responsibility to act or serve as governor in the event of the office's vacancy, the duties of the lieutenant governor are chiefly ce ...

1971–1975, elected on a ticket headed by John C. West, the outgoing lieutenant governor. West and Morris defeated, respectively, the

Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Albert Watson and James M. Henderson. In 1976, Morris was elected Comptroller General by the General Assembly on June 16, 1976, to fill the unexpired term of outgoing Comptroller General J. Henry Mills; he served in that office from 1976 to 1999. Morris was a co-founder and director, later chair, of Carolina Investors, a financial company that provided

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make a profit. It can also refer to a bank or a division of a larger bank that deals with whol ...

ing services as well as making high-risk loans to people with low credit scores. In the 1990s, the company was taken over by HomeGold, which expanded Carolina Investors'

subprime lending In finance, subprime lending (also referred to as near-prime, subpar, non-prime, and second-chance lending) is the provision of loans to people in the United States who may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule. Historically, subpr ...

. When HomeGold began to lose money, it borrowed from deposits made to Carolina Investors and eventually failed in 2003, resulting in 12,000 people reportedly losing an estimated $278 million. Several corporate officers, including Morris, were sentenced to prison for their roles in the fraud. Morris was convicted on 22 counts of

securities fraud Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information.concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

rather than consecutive, so the sentence was '' de facto'' four years. He was released in March 2010 due to a

terminal illness Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, rather than fatal injur ...

. Morris died on February 11, 2011, at the age 82, of

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

Notes

1928 births 2011 deaths Lieutenant governors of South Carolina Democratic Party members of the South Carolina House of Representatives Democratic Party South Carolina state senators Deaths from cancer in South Carolina Deaths from prostate cancer in the United States People from Pickens, South Carolina South Carolina comptrollers general South Carolina politicians convicted of crimes 20th-century South Carolina politicians {{SouthCarolina-politician-stub