Lawyer gets probation for failing to report kickback scheme, says he didn't want to rock the boat
The former general counsel for South Carolina State University has been sentenced to six months of probation for failing to report a kickback scheme in which he donated his take to charity.
U.S. District Judge David Norton sentenced the now suspended lawyer, Edwin Givens, 51, on Thursday, report the Post and Courier, Courthouse News Service and the Times and Democrat. Norton counted the four months that have passed since Givens pleaded guilty to the scheme in May, leaving two months left in his probation term.
Prosecutors had alleged Givens agreed to steer an entertainment contract for the school’s 2011 homecoming dance to a company operated by a friend and business partner of then-South Carolina State board chairman Jonathan Pinson. Givens received $500 in the scheme and donated it to a university foundation.
Pinson was convicted in August on 29 of 45 counts, including racketeering, bribery and corruption, the stories say. Prosecutors said Givens provided substantial assistance in the case.
According to the Times and Democrat, Givens told the court he is “emphatically apologetic.”
“You can’t go along to get along,” he said. “What’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong. I didn’t want to rock the boat. I should have turned the boat over. … Ultimately the boat capsized.”
