Second employee arrested for profiting from sale of scrap metal
Monday, September 13, 2010 at 9:58PM By Claire Byun
A second Winthrop employee was arrested today, September 13, just three days after another former employee was taken into custody on an unrelated charge.
Dave Rentschler, former facilities management supervisor, was arrested on charges of breach of trust over $5000, according to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) arrest warrant.
George Walker, a former printing services employee, was arrested last week on unrelated charges of embezzlement after an investigation revealed that he used a Winthrop procurement card to charge $209,370.
Rentschler was under investigation for misallocating proceeds raised from the sale of scrap metal, and the case has been under investigation since early July.
“That between dates (April 7, 2008) and (February 26, 2010) the defendant while acting as Winthrop University’s Facility Management Supervisor did receive funds in excess of $5000 for the sale of surplus materials which were the property of Winthrop University and converted said funds to personal use,” the official affidavit stated.
The affidavit was signed on Friday, September 10, and Rentschler was arrested three days later.
After review of approximately three years worth of business records, Winthrop Assistant Police Chief Ken Scoggins and SLED found that Rentschler was the “seller of much of this property” and the cash proceeds were “paid to the delivery person in each case,” the police report states.
“No record exists that Rentschler ever reported the sale of the property or turned in the proceeds to university officials,” according to the report.
The police report indicated that the scrap metal was sold at Smith Metal and Iron on Glen Hope Road in Rock Hill.
