A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed the husband of former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and the brother of Rep. Jim Clyburn received shares in a company that leased slot machines to the Catawba Indian Nation’s Two Kings Casino in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.
The casino opened last year after receiving Congressional assistance. The National Indian Gaming Commission has begun an investigation into the matter.
The WSJ said the men were given shares in Kings Mountain Equipment Supply LLC (KMES). The company gets 20 cents for every $1 in profits generated by slots at Two Kings.
John B. Clyburn is the brother of Rep. Clyburn, the high-ranking Democratic congressman from South Carolina who introduced a bill that helped remove one of the final roadblocks for the tribe to get federal permission to build the casino.
Michael Haley is the husband of the former Republican governor who joined many South Carolina politicians to protest allowing the Catawbas to open a casino in South Carolina. They ultimately opened a venue in North Carolina, where they said their ancestors held land.
The WSJ said both men hold less than a 1 percent claim in KMES. Michael Haley received his share as payment for his company doing physical and cybersecurity consulting for the project in 2018, according to a company statement. Nikki Haley was the U.S. United Nations Ambassador at that time; she left the governor’s office a year earlier, before her term ended.
John Clyburn said he consulted on the project on and off for a decade. He said, “I doubt that I discussed” the project with his brother. He received his share from the equipment company in September 2013, soon after the Catawbas first asked for federal approval for the casino, the WSJ stated. He said he was surprised once the casino opened that he received seven or eight payments from the company ranging from $600 to $1,300.
Rep. Clyburn said he didn’t know about his brother’s financial interest in the casino and that they never discussed it. The congressman said he sponsored the legislation that advanced the casino simply to help the Catawba tribe. Regarding his brother profiting from a bill he helped pass, Clyburn told the newspaper, “I don’t care. He gets to make a living. I don’t get his permission, and I don’t give him mine.”
The 3,600-member Catawba Indian Nation has a 1,000-acre reservation near Rock Hill, South Carolina. The tribe’s Kings Mountain, North Carolina, casino has 1,000 slot machines in temporary buildings. Catawba Chief Bill Harris said the tribe is working with the National Indian Gaming Commission regarding unspecified issues that have delayed the start of construction on the permanent casino and 29-story hotel. Harris said tribal officials met with dozens of federal officials in a transparent and public process over more than a decade as they sought permission to build the casino.
He issued a statement: “To the extent that the NIGC has identified areas of concern in its review, we have made corrections or are now actively engaged in resolving those concerns with them.”
