The Bureau of Federal Prisons has confirmed reports that former Rhea County Executive George Thacker has died in federal prison, only a few weeks after he began his sentence for a federal COVID-19 wire fraud conviction. A spokeswoman told us via email that Thacker died on December 26th, but would not provide additional information. After pleading guilty to wire fraud, Thacker was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison on October 5th for stealing $665,000 of CARES Act money given to his county as part of COVID-19 relief and investing it to a personal coinbase account, using it to buy Bitcoin, Ether, and other cryptocurrency.

Thacker intended to use the funding to help pay the salaries of Thacker Corporation employees.

He began his prison sentence in early December at a facility in Edgefield, South Carolina. Thacker was also a musician and in the past owned three Express Lubes in Cumberland County