Review of ex-NC treasurer’s use of state cars ends with no charges

RALEIGH, NC – A North Carolina district attorney has announced an investigation into how then-State Treasurer Dale Folwell used state government vehicles is ending with no charges filed, saying the review found that any alleged policy violations were “insufficient to support a successful criminal prosecution.”

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said on Monday that Folwell did agree to pay the state $6,234 for commuting costs for which he should have been charged and the reimbursement for miles driven outside of what policies allowed during a 19-month period ending last February.

Folwell, a Republican who completed eight years as treasurer, didn’t seek reelection in 2024 and left the post with the new year. He ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for governor last March.

In a statement posted on X, Folwell said he was “relieved” about Freeman’s decision “to close the book on the investigation into car use during my time as Treasurer.”

Freeman disclosed last June the probe that began three months earlier. Freeman sought help from the State Bureau of Investigation to examine allegations of misuse of a state vehicle in Folwell’s agency that stemmed from a state Department of Administration compliance audit, news outlets reported. Investigators reviewed location data from a car assigned to Folwell and matched it to the treasurer’s daily calendar.

The review found that Folwell had traveled to locations across the state to deliver money to agencies and individuals from the state’s unclaimed property funds and to raise awareness of the unclaimed property program.

During such trips, Folwell “made a number of route detours that could be classified as personal in nature,” Freeman’s statement read. “However, upon examination, these appeared to be de minimis from the travel route, and while against motor fleet management policy, were insufficient to support a successful criminal prosecution.”

Freeman’s statement also said Folwell had received a 2020 email from the state’s motor fleet management division that led him to believe that he was not required to maintain travel logs, so logs were not maintained for the period examined.

Freeman said Folwell cooperated fully with the investigation and participated in a “lengthy and detailed interview” with State Bureau of Investigation agents.

Folwell said in his social media statement that he believed that he used government vehicles efficiently and in the least costly way for taxpayers –- filling up his assigned vehicle himself and getting it washed, for example.

“Vehicle assignments are made with the intent for Council of State members to be efficient, productive and accessible 24/7 — and to apply common sense to usage, which I always did,” Folwell wrote. The Council of State is composed of the top statewide elected executive branch officials.

The investigation began months after the 2023 resignation of Democratic State Auditor Beth Wood following a similar vehicle-use review that led her to plead guilty in Wake County court to two misdemeanors for misusing a state-issued vehicle for personal activities. That review began after she had crashed a state-owned car into a parked vehicle after a holiday party in December 2022.

Folwell, a certified public accountant, previously served in government as a local school board member, state House member and head of then-Gov. Pat McCrory’s unemployment benefits agency.