Eddie Tipton: Former Lottery Employee Convicted Of Rigging Lottery Game, Faces 10 Years In Prison

Eddie Tipton was found guilty of fraud on Monday, July 20 after he was accused of rigging a lottery game so that he would win. According to the New York Daily News, Eddie Tipton worked for the lottery when he “inserted a stealth program” into the computer that generated lottery numbers. That program caused Tipton to win $14 million, but he didn’t see a penny of it.

Not only was their surveillance video from the Des Moines, Iowa, convenience store where Tipton played his winning numbers back in 2010, but there was some additional funny business that worked against him.

“Iowa prosecutors allege Tipton bought the same numbers that he had programmed into the lottery computer a month earlier. He then gave the ticket to a friend in Texas who prosecutors say reached out to attorneys in Canada and Texas to try and cash it in without divulging the name of the original ticket buyer. Since Iowa law requires jackpot winners to be identified, the jackpot was never paid.”

Eddie Tipton, 52, was convicted on “circumstantial evidence” according to WHO TV.

“I think that we had a very strong case of circumstantial evidence, so even though there was not direct evidence in the terms of what we can actually show about the computers since it had been wiped clean, they were still able to understand from all of the circumstances, the defendant`s guilt,” said Assistant Attorney General of Iowa Rob Sand.

Tipton’s defense attorney, Dean Stowers, doesn’t seem to think that this verdict is going to stand and is still planning to keep his client out of prison.

“I think when you have a case where a jury is allowed to speculate as much as this jury was, you’re pretty likely to have this as one of your unfortunate outcomes, and that’s what happened. That’s not to be critical of the jury in anyway, but that’s what occurs when speculation is allowed in the courtroom and we repeatedly objected to the jury being allowed to speculate and engage in conjecture and unfortunately that’s what we we’ve wound up with, is with a verdict,” Stowers said.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Eddie Tipton was the Director of Information Security for the Multi-State Lottery Association at the time he committed fraud. While he had quite a few alibis, the jury convicted Tipton without question.

Eddie Tipton faces 10 years behind bars for his actions.

[Photo via Twitter]