South Carolina § 59-150-165 - State and national criminal background investigation.

§ 59-150-165. State and national criminal background investigation.

(A) Any person required to undergo a background investigation pursuant to this chapter must undergo both a state and national criminal history background investigation as a part of the required investigation. Any person required to undergo a background investigation may be required to supply fingerprints, along with other personal identifying information, for submission to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The commission is authorized to use SLED and FBI criminal history records for the screening of persons required to undergo background investigations.

(B) This section applies to persons described in Sections 59-150-40(B)(2), 59-150-100(E), 59-150-130(A), and 59-150-150(C).

(C)(1) In the case of an investigation of a person, as defined in Section 59-150-20(14), other than an individual, the required background investigations may be performed on any or all principals of the person, as determined by the commission.

(2) For purposes of this section, "principal" means:

(a) the directors and officers of an association;

(b) all partners of a partnership, limited partnership, or limited liability partnership;

(c) all members of a limited liability company, or if the company is a manager-managed company, all members and managers;

(d) for a corporation, its directors, officers, and stockholders with a ten percent or more direct or beneficial interest or any person or entity that receives more than ten percent of the net income; and

(e) an employee who has day-to-day operational management responsibilities for the business or entity.

(3)(a) If a corporation is a member of a controlled group of corporations, as defined in 26 U.S.C. 1563, or a member of an affiliated group of corporations, as defined in 26 U.S.C. 1504, and at least one member of the group of corporations is a publicly-held corporation, only the corporation which seeks the vendor or retailer contract pursuant to this chapter is considered a principal for purposes of this chapter, along with its directors, officers, and stockholders as described in subitem (2)(d).

(b) For purposes of subitem (a) of this item, "publicly-held corporation" means a corporation:

(i) whose shares are traded on a national exchange; and

(ii) whose total assets at the end of the corporation's most recent fiscal quarter exceeded one billion dollars.

(D) SLED must collect, retain, expend, and carry forward fees associated with conducting criminal history investigations to offset the cost of performing the investigations. In the case of vendors, the fee for the criminal background investigation must be included in the fee imposed pursuant to Section 59-150-130(A).

HISTORY: 2001 Act No. 59, SECTION 2.