Then-state Representative Marvin Pendarvis, D-North Charleston, speaks with participants at the South Carolina Democratic Party’s “First-in-the-Nation Celebration” dinner on Saturday, January 27, 2024, at the State Fairgrounds in Columbia, South Carolina. A client filed a civil complaint months later, which resulted in criminal fraud charges filed in federal court on Wednesday, November 5, 2025. (File photo by Mary Ann Chastain/special to the SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA – A former South Carolina senator was charged on Wednesday with cheating legal clients, according to a federal indictment.
Former Democratic Rep. Marvin Pendarvis resigned from his North Charleston district, which he had held for seven years, last September after a legal client filed a malpractice case against him. The claims in the case spurred a State Law Enforcement Division inquiry, and the state Supreme Court suspended Pendarvis’ law license.
According to a U.S. District Court document, Pendarvis is charged with identity theft, money laundering, and wire fraud, 19 months after the investigation began. He declined to comment on the charges when contacted by the SC Daily Gazette.
Pendarvis is set to appear in federal court in Charleston on November 18.
The indictment alleges that he deceived many clients.
It accuses him of operating a conspiracy to get money and property from his legal clients between January 2022 and April 2024. Pendarvis took on accident lawsuits and other legal problems involving loss so that he could negotiate settlements. According to the case presented to a federal grand jury, he either did not notify clients that their cases had been settled or informed them that they had received less than the amount he negotiated.
Pendarvis got at least $532,000 from this plan, which he deposited in his legal firm’s bank account but did not utilize to pay clients, according to the indictment.
Among them are four instances between June 8, 2023, and March 13, 2024, when the court document alleges Pendarvis cashed cheques ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 into his own bank account. Pendarvis’ four wire fraud allegations came from those occurrences, according to the filing.
Pendarvis also signed his customers’ names on settlement releases with insurance companies and filed court paperwork related to the settlements without telling his clients, according to the indictment, which led to his allegations of identity theft.
According to the legal petition, because Pendarvis obtained the funds in his legal account illegally, two transfers totaling $75,000 from that account to an unnamed person’s savings account constituted money laundering. According to the petition, Pendarvis deposited an additional $60,000 to a separate bank account owned by the same anonymous person.
According to the complaint, if convicted, Pendarvis would be required to refund any money obtained as part of the plan as determined by a court or jury.
The claims are identical to those in a lawsuit filed by former customer Adrian Lewis.
Lewis stated that Pendarvis resolved a lawsuit without his approval after mainly ignoring him during the proceedings. Although Pendarvis sent Lewis two checks totaling $6,667, Lewis did not understand the matter had been settled until he contacted the sheriff’s office, according to his April 2024 complaint. The settlement agreement had Lewis’ signature, which he claimed was forged.
Pendarvis said in the lawsuit that when Lewis understood the matter was settled, he sought to bribe him with cash and offers to pay off his mortgage.
The civil litigation is still proceeding.
Pendarvis resigned from the House in September 2024, but he won re-election unchallenged last November. He subsequently failed to acknowledge the victory, resulting in a special election.
Courtney Waters, a Democrat and former Charleston County School Board member, won the seat in March.
