Eddie Tipton convicted of fraud for fixing a jackpot in Iowa

Prosecutors in Des Moines assure the high tech scheme extended far beyond the state

US.- The former security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, Eddie Tipton, has been convicted of fraud after an investigation involving at least four states. He faces a sentence of ten years in jail, but is currently free pending an appeal.

The scheme consisted on the installation of undetectable malware that gave Tipton advance knowledge of winning numbers he would pass to his accomplices to play and collect the jackpots. Colorado, Wisconsin and Oklahoma are the other four states where the scam was carried out with US$ 8 million worth of jackpots allegedly paid to Tipton and his associates.

Tipton was caught after he bought one of the winning tickets himself, at a petrol station close to the association’s headquarters. The ticket aroused suspicion when it was presented hours before the one-year deadline by a New York lawyer representing a recently created trust on behalf of a corporation registered in Belize. The surveillance video from the point of sale was released and Tipton’s colleagues recognised him.