Any person who shall knowingly make any false statement or shall falsify or permit to be falsified any record of the System in any attempt to defraud the System as a result of such act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction thereof by any court of competent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding twelve months, or both such fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.
S.C. Code § 9-1-40