A judge sentenced a former Hoosier Lottery security official to eight years of home detention for revealing to two men the store where they could buy a winning $1 million scratch-off ticket.
William C. Foreman, 62, faced up to 50 years in prison but accepted an agreement in which he pleaded guilty to a single felony count of disclosing confidential lottery information. Marion Superior Court Judge Grant Hawkins sentenced him to 20 years and then suspended 12 years.
"I stand here now in front of you embarrassed, remorseful. I take the blame for what I did," said Foreman, who was sentenced Friday. "To this day, I still cannot say why I did it."
He was accused of telling two Shelbyville men in 2004 that a winning ticket in the lottery's "$2,000,000 Bonus Spectacular" game could be bought at a grocery store in Cross Plains in southeastern Indiana's Ripley County.
Prosecutors said the men then bought every ticket for that game available at the store — $640 worth — including the winning ticket.
Last May, the Indiana Court of Appeals rejected a claim that the charges should be dismissed because the potential penalty was too severe.
Foreman, a retired Indianapolis Police Department sergeant, resigned from his $52,800-a-year lottery job in September 2004.
The two other men, Chad R. Adkins, 31, and Daniel J. Foltz, 34, pleaded guilty to theft in June 2005 and agreed to testify against Foreman. They each were sentenced Friday to one year on probation.
The two split the first $50,000 installment of the prize in 2004, but now they must repay that money to the lottery.
A judge sentenced a former Hoosier Lottery security official to eight years of home detention for revealing to two men the store where they could buy a winning $1 million scratch-off ticket.
What's eight years of home detention? Watching T.V., working in the garden, enjoying retirement? Things he was planning to do anyway if those other two crooks had given him his share of the loot.
I agree, that sentence was WAY too light. He should at least have to reimburse all the people who bought tickets thinking they had a chance of winning.
Reimburse? You can't squeeze blood from a turnip. I will agree the sentence was light however.
the judge must've been havin a very good day.... because this sentence is way too light.....but then again he might have had a very good lawyer.
'Foreman, a retired Indianapolis Police Department sergeant, resigned from his $52,800-a-year lottery job in September 2004.'
This may have been the very reason why the sentence was light ..because he was a civil servant to begin with prior to his lottery security position. Besides that, he was 62 years old. He made a mistake and he knew it. A little bit of greed must of kicked in as he got closer to retirement.
They have a t.v. show on thats called GREED.
I agree with everyone here that the sentence was way too light, but it also raises a bigger question that no one seems to be asking; and that is HOW did he know where the winning ticket was going to be sold? I thought no one was supposed to know that! ... Especially lottery officials!!! I guess it stands to reason why so many winning tickets are in certain zip codes ... I've noticed that for a while now in both NY and NJ. Makes you say hmmm. The other story about all the winners in a little NY store lends itself to the same issue.
I hear ya... something's just don't seem right ... and it's called 'inside information'. I'm sure there's alot of corruption going on .. most of it never makes it to the public. But I'm sure it's happening everyday.
Can't wait to read Jim695's commentary on this one!
Indiana lottery rigger faces 50-year penalty
Feisty1, your question hit me immediately as I read this story. "How in da HELL was HE supposed to know where a certain winning ticket was?!?"
Besides that, if you're GOING to cheat, WHY would you tell TWO people when ONE will do?? That's just ASKING for trouble!
I agree with everyone here that the sentence was way too light, but it also raises a bigger question that no one seems to be asking; and that is HOW did he know where the winning ticket was going to be sold? I thought no one was supposed to know that! ... Especially lottery officials!!! I guess it stands to reason why so many winning tickets are in certain zip codes ... I've noticed that for a while now in both NY and NJ. Makes you say hmmm. The other story about all the winners in a little NY store lends itself to the same issue. [Quoted from Feisty1]
Exactly, there seems to be something wrong with the "System" Lottery, not the participants who play a part. >Michael J. Smith
I agree.
While looking into a claim from a person who believed he had lost a winning jackpot ticket -- a lottery investigator requested and received a list of winning tickets which also included the information Foreman passed onto his two friends the crooks.
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/99980
"Foreman, a retired Indianapolis Police Department sergeant..."
The guy is corrupt, so you have to wonder what misdeeds he was party too as a Police officer.
I noticed that in Georgia too. The fact that someone knows what roll as the winning ticket and where its going is unbelivable . I wrote the lottery commision. But as usual the memo was ignored. When a County the size of a small country can have as many as 10+ big win scratch off tickets, that's more than a coincidence. And it happens a lot. When any of you have a chance, go to a lottery site that post the winners and watch how many (I'm talking about scratch-offs) big winners there are in the same town.
Mr. Foreman's attorney was former Hoosier Lottery Director Jack Crawford.
Before we get off on the wrong track here, I should emphasize that our lottery had balls when Mr. Crawford was in charge (you can read that however you'd like), and the Hoosier Lottery was making all kinds of money before he left his post. He was the best lottery director we've ever had, and without a doubt the most honest man who has ever held that post.
I spoke with Mr. Crawford when the newspapers reported that he was challenging the constitutionality of the disclosure law under which Foreman was charged. You must understand that Indiana has TWO disclosure laws - one for Hoosier Lottery employees and officials and another for all other state employees. The "Disclosing Confidential Lottery Information" law is the one that keeps the Hoosier Lottery in business, and it guarantees that no one who has ever worked there can give evidence against anyone else who was or is currently employed there, including the Director. If you work for the Hoosier Lottery and you talk to the police or to the FBI about the crimes being committed by your superiors or colleagues, you'll face fifty years in prison and, given the way this law is written and phrased, your acquittal is highly unlikely.
Now, pay attention, because this is going to get complicated.
This case came about because Mr. Foreman had read a fax when everyone else involved, including the intended recipient, was out to lunch. I can only conclude that the fax originated at Scientific Games offices at the Indianapolis Airport, although I have no proof of this. Foreman, being alone in the office at the time, picked up the fax and read it. The fax contained very specific information concerning the location of a top prize-winning scratch-off ticket, and even included the batch number on the pack (the Hoosier Lottery doesn't have access to these batch numbers; they're used to help verify winning tickets, and are only provided by SciGames when a winner is claimed).
Foreman put the fax back in the tray. Later that day, he ran into someone he knew (either Foltz or Adkins, I can't remember which) and told him, "If you want a good chance at a winner, go play the twenty dollar scratch-offs in Crown Point." End quote. Notice, please, that he did not identify the name of the store, nor did he identify the game (we actually had three $20 games at that time).
Foltz and Adkins then drove to Crown Point. They stopped at a little Mom & Pop store there and bought every $20 scratch-off in the place, spending between seven and eight hundred dollars and, sure enough, they found a ticket worth a million dollars. The next day, one of the men went to Hoosier Lottery headquarters and claimed $25,000, which was half of the first installment. Hoosier Lottery Director Jack Ross paid the claim personally, but told him that his friend would have to come in to claim his share in person.
When the other guy showed up the next day to claim his $25k, he was recognized as an acquaintance of Foreman by William Holcraft, a Hoosier Lottery Internal Security Investigator. He went to the Indiana State Police and launched an investigation, and the next thing you know, reporters began to call Hoosier Lottery officials, asking some embarrassing questions. Holcraft was immediately "fired," but not before signing another "Confidential Agreement" saying that, in consideration of a $7,500 payoff, Holcraft will call the Hoosier Lottery Director and give him a heads-up if Holcraft is questioned about this matter by the police or by the FBI, either now or at any time in the future. Another condition the agreement stipulates is that Holcraft will have to pay back almost ten times that amount if he discloses or discusses any aspect of the case, or of the deal he accepted from the Hoosier Lottery, and that he agrees to plead guilty to any subsequent disclosure charges, whether he hires an attorney or not. I can speak with confidence about this agreement because I have a hard copy of it, thanks to an investigative reporter who sent it to LosingJeff and me.
When Mr. Crawford announced that he was going to challenge the constitutionality of the Hoosier Lottery Disclosure law, I thought that would be the last anyone ever heard of this case. I believed that it would be tied up in court until Foreman died, and then it would just fade away as so many issues do in this state. This plea bargain serves the same purpose; it guarantees that no evidence illustrating the crooked practices of this lottery will ever reach a courtroom.
Had Mr. Crawford been successful, the Hoosier Lottery would have fallen, and many, many public officials would have gone to jail.
As it stands, and knowing what I know about this case, I believe that fax was actually intended for Mr. Holcraft. There is a possibility that it was meant for Chief of Security Pete Byrne, who was also lightly implicated, but to go into that would mean much more typing on my part, and more reading on yours, and it eventually leads back to Holcraft, anyway. Most likely, though, it was Holcraft's fax but, since he had prematurely involved the state police (another infamously corrupt, state-sanctioned organization), they had to get rid of him as quietly as possible. I firmly believe that if the constitutional issue had gone to federal court, as it should have, Mr. Holcraft would not have made it to the courthouse alive; Hoosier Lottery officials would not have been able to defend themselves against his testimony, and I'm certain that a few elected state officials would have been implicated as well.
That's not the whole story, of course, but you now have something more substantive than what's in the article. If you want or need more, just read my posts about the Hoosier Lottery (if you do a search, I'm sure you'll find three or four comments on the subject).
I know now exactly what I'll do if I ever win a significant jackpot. I actually fantasize about saying this at the press conference when they ask me what I'm going to do with the money. "I'm going to do what any self-respecting millionaire does in this state. Since ours are the cheapest in the nation, I'm going to buy some Indiana politicians and judges."
I'll never get to say that, though. If I ever do win a jackpot of $50M or more, I won't attend a press conference; I'll set up a trust and claim my millions anonymously. I'll still make the payoffs to the crooks in public office, I just won't advertise it. If you want to win the game, you have to play by the same rules the other players follow.
That's what I was wondering. Does that mean the lottery knows EXACTLY what stores get what tickets. I know that everything is coded, but I assusmed that they just grabbed a box of tickets and shipped them to the retailers as ordered. I don't like knowing that it is possible that they can know ahead of time. Omni, you're right. This guy got caught, but how can we be sure that this doesn't go on all the time?
If you were running a lottery wouldn't you have some way of tracking which blocks of tickets went to which retailer?
How would you be sure tickets weren't stolen? Forged? Altered?
Yes time*treat,
I do agree with that part. But it now makes me wonder if there really is a chance for those who play scratchers and don't have an "in". I'm okay with the lottery knowing where the tickets are, for exactly the reasons you mentioned but what I don't like is the thought that there are ways that lottery employees can tell their friends where the winning tickets are. As a player I really hope that i am totally wrong.
Maybe he got the light sentence cause he told the judge where to get the other million dollar scratch off winner!!!
Now that's just great - and just to think I was only concerned about dishonest clerks.
They know. The serial numbers are listed on the invoice.
Tracking rolls of tickets is one thing, knowing what rolls the top prizes are in is totally different, having lottery security use the information to rob the public, priceless.
When they tell us something can't happen, stories like this prove they can.
BobP
WHOAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!
this is mind-blowing......
This certainly brings Losing Jeff's posts to mind!
out of all the post, The one from Fja makes the most sense! Thanks for that laugh Fja!
I personnally would LOVE to have an insider tip to win a cool million.
And all those winners list are of their home town. That doesnt mean they bought the winning ticket in that town. I have traveled all thru my state yet I still have to show my home town when I claim.
A higher populous town equals more tickets sold, so it stands to reason that more winners would come from those *claimed* areas. The ratio is still the same......
From inception untill about 7 years ago Georgia dropped 12 - 15 triples a year in the cash 3 game. Now they are down to 2 a year. Gee.. wonder how that happened.