Geddings attorney spars with government witnesses at fraud trial
Friday, September 29th, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
The Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C.
A lawyer for ex-state lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings sparred Thursday with a state ethics board leader and Scientific Games Corp. attorney over whether his client was required to disclose details of his work for the for-profit lottery company.
Jurors in Geddings’ fraud trial will decide whether the public relations consultant failed to give "honest services" to North Carolina citizens by failing to reveal more than $250,000 in payments since 2000 from Scientific Games or a company it acquired.
The government says Geddings meant to hide his relationship with Scientific Games, and prosecutors are using his failure to provide more information on a state economic disclosure statement as evidence. Scientific Games wanted to do business with the new North Carolina lottery, which became law in August 2005.
Geddings didn’t disclose on the form that Scientific Games paid his consulting firm $24,500 for work in North Carolina and South Carolina in 2005.
State Board of Ethics executive director Perry Newson said Geddings should have revealed those payments because the form asks for any information that a "reasonable person" would conclude is needed to determine whether a conflict of interest exists.
Geddings’ attorney Thomas Manning said the question on the disclosure form is subjective. (more…)
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