Indiana Lottery: Ex-lottery official charged in $1 million payout scam
Man told 2 others where a winning ticket would be sold, prosecutors say.
A former security officer for the Hoosier Lottery is accused of conspiring with two other men to rig a $1 million scratch-off game.
Prosecutors say William C. Foreman told two men that a winning ticket in the "$2,000,000 Bonus Spectacular" game had been sent to a store in Cross Plains, Ind.
One of those men then went to that store and bought its entire supply of the game's $20 tickets -- about $700 worth, according to court documents.
Foreman, 59, was arrested Monday and charged with disclosing confidential lottery information, a Class A felony carrying a prison term of up to 50 years.
Daniel Foltz, 31, and Chad Adkins, 28, also were arrested Monday. They face preliminary charges of Class D felony theft, with a possible prison term of up to three years.
Foreman, the secretary for the Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police, also is charged with Class C felony theft, carrying a maximum prison term of eight years.
After Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi and a team of investigators served search warrants at the lottery's Downtown Indianapolis offices Monday, Brizzi said the inquiry continues.
"It's just this one game that was compromised," Brizzi said. "I don't want to send a scare to the entire state of Indiana that the lottery is somehow fixed, because our investigation is limited to just this one game and all of the tickets have now been accounted for."
Five tickets for the game would have won $1 million prizes, said Hoosier Lottery Director Jack Ross.
One of those jackpot tickets was sold to a legitimate winner who lives in Mishawaka; three were in the lottery's warehouse and subsequently were destroyed, along with all unsold tickets for the game.
The fifth ticket is the one redeemed by Adkins and Foltz. It was worth $1 million -- $50,000 a year for 20 years. Adkins and Foltz each were paid $25,000.
Ross said new tickets were printed -- including three new million-dollar winners -- and the game continues. The winners of the five valid tickets will be entered in a drawing to win an additional $1 million.
Ross said his agency is cooperating with the inquiry.
"If they have evidence now that this game is compromised, we will continue to cooperate and make sure they are brought to justice," he said. "The integrity of the lottery is job one over here. There are no games on the street that have been compromised in any way."
If it's proved the game was rigged, Ross said, the lottery will seek to recover the money awarded to Foltz and Adkins.
According to court documents, the game was compromised on May 13, when Hoosier Lottery investigator Matthew Hollcraft obtained a ticket reconstruction list from the Georgia-based manufacturer. That list, combined with information available at the lottery office, would allow someone to trace all five winning tickets.
Two others besides Hollcraft had access to that list, prosecutors say: Pete Byrne, the lottery's security chief, and Foreman.
Foreman, prosecutors say, conspired with Adkins and Foltz to claim a winning ticket sent to Otter's Grocery in Cross Plains, in Ripley County in southeastern Indiana.
According to records, store clerk Ragina Warner identified Foltz as the man who spent about $700 to purchase the store's stock of "$2,000,000 Bonus Spectacular" tickets in May. She told police she had never seen anyone buy that many $20 tickets.
Lottery officials had been conducting their own investigation into that game, Ross said. The list, a major security breach, was one of the performance issues that led to Hollcraft's resignation in May, Ross said.
According to court records, Foltz went to lottery headquarters Sept. 7 to claim the prize; Adkins went the next day. Byrne, the security chief, interviewed the men and recognized Adkins as Foreman's friend.
In that interview, Ross said, Adkins admitted he knew Foreman but denied receiving any information from him about the game.
Ross delayed paying the men and required Byrne and Foreman to take polygraph tests. Byrne passed the test.
Foreman refused the polygraph and resigned in September, Ross said, "but he insisted on telling me that he had nothing to do with compromising the tickets."