A Myrtle Beach-area nonprofit director is facing misconduct allegations just a few years after the same nonprofit’s former director was indicted on embezzlement charges.
A former business manager for the Boys & Girls Club of the Grand Strand filed a lawsuit alleging she was fired in retaliation for reporting misconduct by Executive Director Ryan Grace.
Laura Rice, terminated April 15, 2025, began noticing Grace’s theft of funds and activities conducted for personal profit last December, but her complaint to the nonprofit’s board of directors were not investigated, according to the suit.
Mark Lazarus, chairman of the nonprofit board, denied Rice’s allegations in a statement to The Sun News.
“After receiving the complaints while (Rice was) an employee, The Boys and Girls Club investigated them thoroughly and fully, and found them to have no merit,” he wrote. “A formal, more detailed response to her lawsuit will be filed within thirty days.”
Grace, who is named individually as a defendant in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rice told board members she intended to report Grace’s unlawful conduct to law enforcement, the complaint states, but it’s not clear that she ever did.
The Boys & Girls Club of the Grand Strand did previously report its former director Dione Buonto in 2020 to police after Buonto allegedly embezzled more than $100,000 from the nonprofit, according to previous Sun News reporting.
Buonto had used money from the organization to pay for personal items, including hair and beauty products, home decor, moving expenses, tuition for her son and personal travel for her and her family members, indictments issued in 2021 stated.
She pled guilty in 2022 to two charges of breach of trust with fraudulent intent and was sentenced to two years probation, restitution and a $50,000 fine.
Grace, who was hired as director last year, is the third leader of the organization since Buonto was fired. The nonprofit manages more than $3 million worth of total assets, according to its most recent IRS tax filing for 2023.
