Court documents released on Wednesday confirm that the richest man in South Dakota, billionaire T. Denny Sanford, is the “implicated individual” in a child porn investigation that began in 2019.
Multiple media outlets have previously reported that Sanford was the subject of the probe, starting with the investigative reporting outlet ProPublica, which identified him in August 2020.
The formal revelation follows an October decision from the South Dakota Supreme Court, which ordered search warrants associated with the case unsealed. ProPublica and a local outlet, the Argus Leader, had sought their release.
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The decision gave Sanford 20 days to file for a rehearing.
Early Wednesday, the court released 285 pages of legal briefs and documents, which repeatedly identified Sanford by name.
Sanford, 85, has not been charged with any crimes.
In a statement, Sanford's lawyer, former South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, said, “an investigation involving search warrants began in December of 2019, and it was thorough in that it included five search warrants... The ultimate fact remains that the investigating authorities have not found information to support criminal charges.”
The legal probe has threatened to deal a massive reputational blow to Sanford, who was previously regarded as a major philanthropist, both in South Dakota and nationally.
In 2007, when he was worth an estimated $2.8 billion, he famously declared that he wanted “to die broke” by giving away all of his money. He has since doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to philanthropic causes—much of it to his namesake healthcare system, Sanford Health—but has nonetheless grown richer. Forbes pegs his current net worth at $3.4 billion.
Earlier this week, Sanford Health made headlines following reports that its former CEO, Kelby Krabbenhoft, was paid more than $49 million in 2020. Krabbenhoft was pushed into retirement that year after sending a note to employees declaring that he wouldn’t wear a mask to work, believing that he couldn’t transmit COVID-19 since he had previously contracted the virus.
Even after news of the child porn investigation became public, Denny Sanford has continued to dole out cash. Sanford Health accepted a $350 million gift from him in September, and public filings reveal that he gave $1 million to a Koch-affiliated Super PAC, Americans for Prosperity Action, over the summer.
The Super PAC has not responded to multiple inquiries from The Daily Beast over the past few months.
Sanford’s legal issues began in December 2019, when a law enforcement official requested a search warrant related to his email account.
The following spring, South Dakota’s Division of Criminal Investigation sought four additional warrants related to Sanford’s internet and cell phone providers, all of which the court issued. The warrants cited an investigation into possession and distribution of child pornography; more than one of them prohibited the providers from notifying Sanford, citing the risk that evidence might be destroyed.
States agents thought they had enough evidence to charge Sanford but referred the case to federal authorities because the alleged activity took place across multiple states, according to a story published in August by the Associated Press. The outlet also reported that South Dakota could still charge Sanford if the Department of Justice does not.
The state’s attorney general, however, published a press release on Oct. 28 stating that the AP article “attributed certain statements to law enforcement officers and the Attorney General. Those anonymous statements are inaccurate and do not properly reflect the position of our Office.”
Jackley said that the discrepancy “has now called into question the accuracy of the anonymous sources that have been providing the information on this investigation.”
It is unclear whether state or federal prosecutors are still pursuing a case.
A member of the attorney general's office declined to comment, while the Department of Justice did not immediately reply to an inquiry from The Daily Beast.
