The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division says a former state employee and former state trooper worked together to defraud the state out of more than $500,000.

SLED charged Walter Newton of McColl with misconduct of a public official, criminal conspiracy, and grand larceny.

Christopher Russell Logan of Cheraw is charged with misconduct in office, criminal conspiracy, and obtaining money under false pretenses.

Newton, who worked for the Vocational Rehabilitation Department's Marlboro Work Training Center in Bennettsville, is accused of accepting money, favors, and gifts from Logan, who was a state trooper, for falsifying invoices for used wooden pallets for the department.

The arrest warrants say between 2008 and this year, the department paid $504,712 for the pallets, and the majority of them weren't sold, delivered, or can be accounted for by the department.

Newton is also accused of having someone steal $6,000 worth of brass and copper from the center and having it delivered to Logan's home.

Both men were booked into the Marlboro County Detention Center and are free on $15,000 bond each.