William C. Foreman could spend 50 years in state prison if he's convicted of stealing secrets from the Hoosier Lottery in an effort to rig a million-dollar scratch-off game.
But the former lottery security official's trial has been delayed so he can challenge the constitutionality of the nation's harshest penalty for breaching lottery security.
The state's top lottery official, Esther Q. Schneider, favors the stiff penalty to deter inside jobs that threaten public confidence in the Hoosier Lottery, which has been a cash cow for state government since 1989, generating nearly $10 billion in sales.
"They need to go for the throat," Schneider said.
Former Hoosier Lottery Director Jack Crawford says reaching for the throat goes too far when it comes to Indiana's law prohibiting disclosure of confidential lottery records for financial gain.
Crawford is the Indianapolis defense attorney representing Foreman, 60, a retired Indianapolis Police Department sergeant who resigned from the lottery in 2004 amid a criminal investigation.
"The law has to make sense, and this one doesn't," Crawford said. "Some forms of rape, child molesting and armed robbery are considered lesser offenses."
He has filed a motion in Marion Superior Court to dismiss the felony charge. Foreman is scheduled to go to trial March 20.
Marion Superior Court Judge Grant W. Hawkins has not yet ruled.
The Indiana attorney general's office and the Marion County prosecutor's office are opposing Crawford's effort to invalidate the law.
"The General Assembly has said this is so serious it needs to be an A felony," Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said. "If the public loses confidence in the lottery, there will be no lottery." [Editor: Using the same logic, why don't they get rid of the computerized drawings?]
Nonetheless, Brizzi acknowledged even he was surprised to find the penalty was so severe when Foreman was charged in November 2004.
The game at issue is the continuing "$2,000,000 Bonus Spectacular," in which million-dollar scratch-off winners get a shot at another million-dollar prize at the end of the game. Tickets began selling for $20 each in January 2004, and the Hoosier Lottery says two million-dollar winning tickets have yet to be claimed.
In their brief to the court, Deputy Prosecutor Rom Byron and Deputy Attorney General Chad C. Duran say Foreman was a trusted lottery employee whose duties included monitoring Scientific Games, the Atlanta company that printed Indiana's lottery tickets.
Prosecutors say Foreman used his inside knowledge to direct two accomplices to a store in Cross Plains that had a winning ticket. There, they bought all of the tickets.
They have agreed to plead guilty and testify against Foreman, who Crawford says made "not a dime" from the alleged ticket scam.
The 20 to 50 years in prison Foreman faces is considerably more than the two to eight years a defendant in Indiana could expect if convicted of any other financial crime.
Crawford argues that, with the exception of unlawfully disclosing confidential lottery information, 50-year prison terms have been exclusively reserved in Indiana for the most violent crimes or serious drug crimes.
Whoever made up the rule for the scratch game to be annuity-only should get 50 years (not of payments).
Wow - I just watched a show on The Discovery Channel the other day - it said that no one from Scientific Games ever knows where a specific winning ticket (or prize value) is.
I guess that wasn't true?
I'm very surprised that this could happen - but not surprised that a lotttery security official was part of it. Lottery security departments, like everyone else, hire human beings. Where you have human beings and the means to commit crime, its going to happen.
"The General Assembly has said this is so serious it needs to be an A felony," Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said. "If the public loses confidence in the lottery, there will be no lottery." [Editor: Using the same logic, why don't they get rid of the computerized drawings?]
But at the same time, the lottery KNOWS where the winning tickets are being sent ?
dont do the crime if you can't do the time....sounds like something from a tv show in the 70's
if you can't trust the lotto personal people what do you do with the lotto games.
computerize lotto stinks and now the lotto personal are starting the stink also?
if you can't trust the lotto personal people what do you do with the lotto games.
That's why this is so devastating. The Hoosier Lottery would go a long way with the credibility of their games if they would dump the computerized drawings. It may help people forget this regrettable incident.
its all about money money money
its all about money money money
they would cheat a poor,blind,deaf woman..those indiana lottery officials would go door to door if they could......
its all about money money money
So, why should we have any laws (in the first place)........KAN'T we trust our
appointed and elected deleaders to be honest and look-out for the..... little people,
they're all wanting to "help us out" or so they say therefore, we better
listen when they speak, even, former Hoosier Lottery Director, "Old".... Jack
agrees with me.....so trust them, "YOU HEAR" they're L@@k'n out for you!
LOL $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
PSYKOMO
50 YEARS! Wow ! If integrity was a criteria, what would Kennedy and Kerry do for a living? Oh yeah, they got rich off of other people.
50 years in prison would keep any lottery employee from rating or testifying if the computerized games are rigged.
Just like the mob days. rubem out
if bill foreman gets away with this,i'm sure others will try it also.do you think this is foremans first time doing this
I bet that some people lost their jobs at Scientific Games as well. I doubt that they should have even given this information out.
"The General Assembly has said this is so serious it needs to be an A felony," Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said. "If the public loses confidence in the lottery, there will be no lottery." [Editor: Using the same logic, why don't they get rid of the computerized drawings?]
But at the same time, the lottery KNOWS where the winning tickets are being sent ?
There have been a few discussions on this board regarding scratch tickets and members report that this is true. Also, members were discussing recently how clerks at stores can tell which ones are the winners, something I still find hard to believe. However, the people here seem to know a lot more than I do (at least about lotteries!) so I trust the information has validity. Judging from this article, I guess the locations for big winners are chosen in advance, so it's not really a game of chance is it? I suppose you could run around town and scratch your little fingers off and, if the winners were sent to another county you've wasted your money. That being said, the winning ticket might be in the next pile right in front of you and you'd never know. I did witness a woman winning $10,000 on a scratch ticket in Bonita, but she spent $10 for one ticket. Not a bad return on investment however!
50 YEARS! Wow ! If integrity was a criteria, what would Kennedy and Kerry do for a living? Oh yeah, they got rich off of other people.
Don't get me started on this one. (I'm a Democrat raised in Boston!) What about child molesters? Florida has had so many perverts pop up lately and commit horrific crimes. How they get off the radar is beyond my understanding. The answer is "they don't register" which is such a lame excuse. If they were implanted with blinking red lights, they wouldn't have to register. My car alarm would do the trick. 50 years for defrauding a lottery? In most states rape carries a sentence of about 3 to 10 years. So, cheat the lottery, get 50 years. Commit a violent act against a woman or a child, get paroled in 5.
hangem at high noon
50-year penalty for this particular crime is cruel and unusual punishment.
Though what the security official did is criminal and should be punished, what he was able to do is just a symptom of a flawed lottery operation.
Just like any other public scandals, the lowly official becomes the scapegoat and the superiors go scot free.
Based on some peoples viewpoint, it is all the fault of tempation. The cure? Pay every lottery employee a minimum wage of ten million dollars a year. No one is immune to tempation, so take away the temptation. That is the answer to what would make the lottery immune to corruption.
Whoa. Back up the paddy-wagon.. this person has not been SENTENCED yet.. it could end up being much less than 50 years. But that can still be extreme vs. other worse crimes.
Also. "IF" computerized drawings are rigged???
Will lottery annuities eventually be stretched out to 50 years? I've actually heard of giveaways where the prize was paid as $20,000 a year for 50 years.
if you can't trust the lotto personal people what do you do with the lotto games.
That's why this is so devastating. The Hoosier Lottery would go a long way with the credibility of their games if they would dump the computerized drawings. It may help people forget this regrettable incident.
New Jersey has ball drawings and they were caught being corrupt. Crooks are crooks. Neither option ensures honesty! Then again, New Jersey would find a way to corrupt the game if they used lead bricks pulled by elephants!
Will lottery annuities eventually be stretched out to 50 years? I've actually heard of giveaways where the prize was paid as $20,000 a year for 50 years.
If I was 18 and in college, that would be a great payout. $20K a year for the rest of my life. Sure would make lifes decisions a lot easier to make. I get more than that from Uncle Sam now, and would have loved it start at 18! Would have less of a chance in blowing what I made that last 50 years!!!
Will lottery annuities eventually be stretched out to 50 years? I've actually heard of giveaways where the prize was paid as $20,000 a year for 50 years.
If I was 18 and in college, that would be a great payout. $20K a year for the rest of my life. Sure would make lifes decisions a lot easier to make. I get more than that from Uncle Sam now, and would have loved it start at 18! Would have less of a chance in blowing what I made that last 50 years!!!
The Pepsi $Billion was 40 annual payments, with the last a balloon ($710 million I think.) For some reason there was no sweepstakes last year.
William C. Foreman could spend 50 years in state prison if he's convicted of stealing secrets from the Hoosier Lottery in an effort to rig a million-dollar scratch-off game.
The ONLY annuity not worth considering!
William C. Foreman could spend 50 years in state prison if he's convicted of stealing secrets from the Hoosier Lottery in an effort to rig a million-dollar scratch-off game.
The ONLY annuity not worth considering!
I'd LOVE to see a lottery game where the top "prize" is X years in jail!