The Checks and Balances Project

Checks & Balances Project (C&BP) has briefed the FBI on potential fraud involving Sussex County Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve White and the Stony Creek Volunteer Rescue Squad (SCVRS) that he runs.

The briefing followed a July 14 complaint to the FBI that detailed 10 issues of concerns about White’s apparent corruption in office, including his conflicts of interest in voting to send taxpayer money to SCVRS and potential Medicare and Medicaid billing fraud tied to SCVRS.

C&BP also filed a complaint on July 17 with the inspector general of the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid. C&BP briefed an HHS investigator on Aug. 6 about the details included in its complaint.

The FBI and the HHS inspector general reached out to Checks & Balances Project.

The HHS complaint alleged potential fraud involving billing for ambulance calls conducted by SCVRS and the lack of transparency in the squad’s finances.

SCVRS lost its federal nonprofit status in 2023, because it failed to file tax returns for three years. C&BP also reported that in the five years for which tax returns are available – 2015 through 2019 – SCVRS reported a $304,000 surplus.

Outstanding FOIA requests

C&BP is still waiting for Sussex County to reply to Freedom of Information Act requests seeking data on SCVRS response times to calls for help and the number of times White used his state of Virginia email address for Sussex County work.

The county is also in apparent violation of Virginia law for not maintaining public records, including the agenda packets and minutes of supervisors’ meetings, on its website.

Sussex County’s site includes no information on meetings before 2025 and is missing minutes from some meetings after that date.

State law § 2.2-3707.2. says, “Posting of minutes for local public bodies. Except as provided in subsection I of § 2.2-3707, any local public body subject to the provisions of this chapter shall post minutes of its meetings on its official public government website, if any, within seven working days of final approval of the minutes.”

However, attempts to access the links on the site for meetings before 2025 yield this message: “Sorry! That page doesn’t seem to exist.”

Neither the office of Attorney General Jay Jones nor Sussex Commonwealth Attorney Regina Sykes have responded to C&BP’s offers to brief them.

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

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