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N.C. Lottery Head Guilty of Mail Fraud
Friday, October 13, 2006 posted 03:14 AM EDT
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A former state lottery commissioner, accused of failing to disclose his work for a leading supplier of scratch-off
lottery tickets, was convicted of federal mail fraud charges Thursday.
Prosecutors said Kevin Geddings, who served on the newly formed commission for just over a month last year, defrauded the
state of honest services because he never reported that his public relations company was paid more than $250,000 by Scientific
Games Corp., one of the companies vying for the state's business.
Defense attorneys argued Geddings was innocent because he stopped working for Scientific Games before his appointment to
the commission and did not believe he needed to report past dealings with the company to the state Board of Ethics.
The jury, which deliberated for more than six hours, found Geddings guilty of five counts of mail fraud but acquitted him
of wire fraud.
He faces as many as 20 years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines for each count. A sentencing hearing was scheduled
for Feb. 5, and Geddings will remain free until then. Geddings and his lawyer left the courthouse without commenting to reporters
and did not immediately return telephone calls.
Named to the lottery commission on Sept. 22, 2005, Geddings resigned Nov. 1, 2005, hours before Scientific Games disclosed
it had paid him $24,500 that year for communications work.
Geddings, a former chief of staff for South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges, testified in his own defense, telling jurors that he
"was not as precise" as he should have been when filing the state ethics disclosure form.
The verdicts came after a three-week trial that included testimony from powerful state lawmakers, including Gov. Mike Easley
and House Speaker Jim Black, who each said they didn't know about Geddings' past work.
"What the whole case was about was the fact that public officials serve the public," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis
Duffy. "People are sick of public officials serving their own interest and the interests of their friends, especially."
Geddings was originally charged with nine fraud counts. One was dismissed before the trial started, and U.S. District Judge
James Dever threw out two wire fraud charges on Tuesday, ruling they concerned actions that occurred before Geddings was
appointed to the lottery commission and therefore were not subject to the state's ethics rules.
Following his indictment this summer, Geddings moved to Florida, where he worked at a St. Augustine radio station owned by
his wife.
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