State investigators are looking into allegations that people tied to a North Carolina policy-focused nonprofit violated state ethics and lobbying laws.

Investigators are probing trips to Kentucky for a tour of bourbon distilleries in 2022 and 2024, said Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, who asked the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) to investigate the matter in September 2025. N.C. lawmakers and lobbyists attended the trips, which a group called Greater Carolina hosted.

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The probe comes more than a year after leaders of progressive advocacy group Carolina Forward complained about Greater Carolina to the charitable solicitation division of the Secretary of State’s office. 

Blair Reeves, the executive director of Carolina Forward, alleged in the August 2024 complaint that Greater Carolina improperly used its nonprofit tax status and evaded the state’s ban on gifts to public officials. The complaint alleged that the organization provided a cover for “covert and unreported lobbying” at luxury events that have benefited lawmakers.

Representatives of Greater Carolina didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Reeves’ complaint raised transparency concerns about so-called “dark money” groups, which are generally exempt from certain donor disclosure requirements but must still comply with some reporting rules under state law. He alleges that the group behind the trip did not meet those obligations.

Greater Carolina is organized as a 501c4 social welfare organization. Under federal tax law, such nonprofit organizations must have as their primary objective the promotion of civic good.

Social welfare groups can lobby for legislation, but they can’t intervene in political campaigns, and political activities cannot be their primary purpose. They can raise unlimited amounts of money from individuals as well as corporations and don’t have to disclose their donors.

On tax documents, Greater Carolina has said its mission is “to ensure North Carolina embraces the policies necessary to maintain and support our status as one of the best states in the nation for business and free enterprise.”

Reeves alleges that Greater Carolina’s actual purpose was to act as a passthrough for unlimited contributions from alcohol and gambling interests to a powerful lawmaker who helped those interests achieve their legislative goals while circumventing campaign finance laws and ethics rules.

The complaint mentioned a Kentucky event and alleged that a major multinational alcoholic beverage company called Diageo funded it. Diageo has at least two registered lobbyists in N.C., Secretary of State records show.

The 2024 trip made headlines at the time after allegations of boorish behavior by attendees appeared online. The group dismissed the complaint as “overblown” at the time and said that the trip was a fundraising event in which donors paid for access to lawmakers.

“I want to know who paid for it,” Reeves told WRAL News on Friday. 

In his 2024 complaint, Reeves asked state officials to investigate Greater Carolina and force it to disclose details about its contributions and spending. He also wanted state and federal officials to investigate whether the group violated lobbying and tax laws.

Reeves’ organization also alleged that Greater Carolina was improperly using its nonprofit tax status to bankroll then-state Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln County, who was a lead budget writer. Saine resigned from the legislature in 2024. That complaint alleged that Greater Carolina had raised and spent $1.5 million with no record of how or why it was spent.

Saine didn’t immediately respond to WRAL News on Friday.

Reeves said Friday that he wasn’t informed in advance by the SBI that the investigation had been requested, but he welcomed the news but maintained cautious optimism.

“I haven’t counted any chickens yet,” Reeves said. “It took Lorrin Freeman a year to do this.”