Prosecutor: Man convicted in Hot Lotto scam fixed 2 Kansas jackpots

Investigators have found two more lottery prizes worth $44,000 that they believe are connected to Eddie Tipton, the former Iowa lottery official convicted of manipulating a Hot Lotto draw to win millions.

Tipton purchased the two tickets for the “2by2” game while traveling through Kansas in December 2010, according to a release from the Kansas Lottery. That’s the same month that Tipton reportedly purchased the Hot Lotto ticket worth $14.3 million from a Des Moines QuikTrip that led to his conviction in July on two fraud charges.

“The Kansas Lottery’s investigations are ongoing as more information becomes available from Iowa as to the extent of Mr. Tipton’s alleged criminal acts,” Kansas Lottery Executive Director Terry Presta said in a statement. “We will continue to look for any possible intrusions into our gaming systems. The integrity of our games and security to our players remains paramount.”

Presta’s statement said Iowa investigators asked the Kansas Lottery earlier in December to take a closer look at claims that were made for winnings from two tickets drawn in December 2010. Investigators believe Tipton himself purchased the tickets and gave them to two different people to claim; one person was from Iowa and a second was from Texas, according to the release.

The revelation Monday brings the total number of winnings believed to be tainted by Tipton’s influence up to six across five different states. As the former information security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, Tipton had access to the random number generating computers that chose the numbers for the “2by2” game, as well as the Hot Lotto drawing that sparked the criminal investigation.

The Urbandale-based lottery association, known as MUSL, is a nonprofit vendor that provides games like Hot Lotto, Mega Millions and Powerball to state lotteries nationwide. At his first trial, Assistant Iowa Attorney General Rob Sand built a case that Tipton installed a self-deleting computer program, known as a root kit, onto one of the computers to rig the outcome of a draw.

All of the prizes he’s been connected to have been from so-called “manual play” games that require lottery players to make their own guesses at winning numbers.

Tipton’s defense lawyer, Dean Stowers, has maintained his client’s innocence and told reporters he’s confident the case can be won on appeal. However, accusations that Tipton rigged more games have trickled in since the July trial.

Iowa authorities received a tip in August after Tipton’s conviction that his brother, Tommy Tipton, had won $500,000 from a Colorado lottery winning. That information led to the discovery that Tommy Tipton had recruited a friend to claim a ticket that won $568,990 on Nov. 23, 2005 on his behalf in exchange for a cut of the winnings.

Iowa DCI officials and Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich announced new charges of money laundering and ongoing criminal conduct against Tipton at a news conference in October.

The fresh investigation also uncovered a $783,257.12 payout from a winning Megabucks that was drawn on Dec. 29, 2007. The payout was made to a limited liability corporation controlled by Robert Rhodes, Tipton’s longtime best friend from Texas who’s also accused in the scheme to get the winnings from the $14.3 million Hot Lotto drawing. Rhodes is currently also facing two counts of fraud in Iowa.

Then in November another tainted winning was revealed at a court hearing in Tipton’s case. Investigators linked a payout on a 2011 Hot Lotto prize for a ticket bought in Oklahoma that was worth $1.2 million to Tipton. That ticket was purchased by Kyle Conn, an owner in a Texas construction company. Tipton has longstanding family ties to Texas, where his brother lives.

The new information about the winnings in Kansas is expected to be folded into the ongoing criminal conduct charge against Tipton. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison after his conviction, but has remained free on an appeal bond.

Stowers, Tipton's attorney, laughed out loud when told of the latest allegations on Monday, the Associated Press reported. He repeated his longstanding contention that there is no evidence that Tipton tampered with the computers, and argued that any charges related to the old jackpots should be barred by the three-year statute of limitations. Sand is fighting Tipton's motion to dismiss the case, saying the additional jackpots were only recently uncovered.

Stowers said the new information was a publicity stunt designed to bring more attention to the case, which is set for trial next month but likely to be delayed.

"If you look at what they are claiming they have found after the first trial, you would think these investigators must be completely incompetent," he told the AP. "They apparently are telling everybody that they never looked before the first trial."

Stowers said that claiming the games were rigged was a risky strategy for state lotteries.

"If that's their claim, what is their obligation to the players? Obviously they were running games that weren't legitimate and collected all this money from people and spent it," he said.

Stowers is asking a district court judge to dismiss the newest charges against Tipton, arguing that the statute of limitations for any crime has run out.

However, in a response filed Monday, Sand wrote that the statute has not expired, because a conspiracy is legally considered to be ongoing until as long as the people involved are trying to cover up their actions. That means the criminal conspiracy was still ongoing when Tommy Tipton testified at the July trial that a hooded man captured on QuikTrip surveillance was not his brother, Sand wrote.

The Associated Press contributed to this story