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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