NC Officials Widen Probe Into Serious State Alcohol Law Violations

NC residents don't believe the hype!

Before you proceed with viewing the contents of this blog post (from NC newspapers), please beware that NC Officials will more than likely do absolutely NOTHING about ABC Board Violations.

In fact the only reason why local NC newspapers publishers have begun printing these type of articles lately is because they realize nationwide Democrats are in trouble politically.

Which is why each time I read a newspaper article about NC Officials proclaiming to "investigate" Public and Political Corruption running rampant in this state, I just throw some salt over my shoulder.

This Corruption stuff has been going on for years because North Carolina is one of the most crooked states in America!

If you or I were committing such CRIMES we'd be thrown in jail tomorrow but NC Politicians can commit crimes, walk away free and still remain in office.

Let's not also forget NC is run by Democrats who in this instance seem to be concerned only about keeping their Political seats warm by any means necessary.

Some of these NC Politicians will probably even kill to keep their seats.

Yes I too am a registered Democrat however....

Although I'm not perfect, I can still say without blinking that NC Politicians (Dems) are extremely Notorious for Public Corruption in the worst way.

Historically Federal Officials are the only ones who have actually done anything to help fight real crime and corruption in North Carolina i.e., FBI.

Therefore I suggest if you are aware of any serious crimes being committed related to Fraud, Embezzlement, Illegal Wiretapping, Alcohol law violations, etc., instead of contacting NC Officials who will just retaliate against you, instead contact Federal Officials or Federal Agencies to report your concerns.








NC State Officials Looks At Wining, Dining Of ABC Execs


The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission has widened a probe into possible violations of liquor laws across North Carolina in the wake of a company's lavish holiday dinner for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County ABC Board.

The liquor company Diageo spent $12,700 on the Nov. 18 dinner for 28 ABC Board employees and their guests at Del Frisco's, a high-end steakhouse. The bar tab alone came to more than $4,900, including $1,000 for four bottles of Dom Perignon.

Andy Iredale, Diageo's marketing director for North Carolina, told investigators he had bought meals for ABC employees in many cities and counties.

In a report released this week, state Alcohol Law Enforcement agents charged the Mecklenburg board with accepting illegal gifts. It charged Diageo and Iredale with providing the gifts and unlawfully entering an ABC store for reasons other than conducting business.

Michael Herring, chief administrator for the state ABC Commission, said these are the most serious accusations leveled in years.

Herring said his agency has sent Diageo and Iredale violation notices stemming from the Charlotte dinner. They face a fine of $140,000 or a year's suspension of theirliquor permit. They couldappeal.

After news accounts of the dinner, Mecklenburg ABC employees and board chairman Parks Helms repaid $9,334. The company picked up the bill for its two employees and their spouses, as well as the entire $2,032 tip.

The state ABC Commission's chairman, Jon Williams, ordered the investigation in November. The state commission, which adjudicates allegations of liquor law violations, did not issue any comment beyond the agents' report.

Attempts to reach a Diageo spokesman were unsuccessful. The London-based company's brands include Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan, Tanqueray, Guinness and Crown Royal.

Iredale told Alcohol Law Enforcement agents he'd also bought meals for local board employees in Asheville, Lenoir, Greensboro and Winston-Salem, and in Carteret, New Hanover and Onslow counties.

Iredale said he offered to treat Craig Pleasants, general manager of Wake County's ABC Board, to meals, but Pleasants refused.

Pleasants confirmed that Thursday night. "He just said, 'I'd like to take you out for a meal,' and I said, 'I don't think that's a good idea right now,'" Pleasants said.

Pleasants said that for the past several months, he has been turning down offers of meals - two in the past two days. Typically, someone offers a free meal every couple of weeks, he said, though these are hardly invites to lavish blowouts. "Mostly what we're talking about is a meat and two vegetables somewhere, and it's really talking business," he said.

Pleasants said such meals are allowed under state ABC guidelines.

The N.C. ABC Commission this week gave Iredale 10 days to provide receipts for other dinners provided to ABC employees. Among those are receipts from a Nov. 17 lunch at Charlotte's Ritz-Carlton hosted by Jim Beam Brands for Helms, the Mecklenburg board chairman, and ABC Board CEO Calvin McDougal.

Neither Helms nor McDougal could be reached Thursday.

North Carolina maintains a state ABC Commission that operates a central liquor warehouse, the sole source of products for the stores. The state commission, though, can intervene at a store only when there is a major problem, such as corruption. The local ABC boards that run the stores are appointed public panels with their own bureaucracies.

Critics are using the controversy to renew calls for the state to get out of the liquor business.

Controversies prompted the commission to issue ethics guidelines in 1996 and 2003.








Charlotte-Meck. ABC Board Caught In Another Lie



The distiller that the Mecklenburg County ABC Board got a $9000 dinner from and the board then claimed it had “no business relation with Diageo other than selling its products in ABC stores in Mecklenburg County.” Yeah, not so much.

WCNC reports that the board only routinely writes six-figure checks to Diageo each month. During 2009 the board has had $11m. worth of business relations with Diageo.

Still, this has not pushed the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Commissioners to remove the board and its chair Parks Helms and start over. Instead the Republicans on the board remain narrowly focused on whether board violated any ethics law by accepting the $9000 gift. This is staggeringly beside the point. Helms and fellow board members are presumed to be held to a higher standard than petty thieves.

They are in a position of trust, given immense power with little direct, day-to-day public oversight. If we can’t trust them to do the right thing, then we need to find people we can trust.





ABC Officials Repay Pricey Holiday Dinner


The Chairman of the Mecklenburg County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and top staff members have paid back $9,000 to an international liquor company that treated the local officials to a holiday dinner last month.

The payback comes as state officials are conducting an investigation into the dinner at Del Frisco's steakhouse in Charlotte, where a hostess said the cheapest steak is $32.95. State ABC Commission officials said last month that they have the authority to remove local board members and employees who violate state laws against accepting gifts.

“We shouldn't have done it,” ABC board Chair Parks Helms told the Observer Monday. “We made a mistake.”

He said that the dinner for 28 people may have appeared improper and that the board will revise its policies to ensure that guidelines about accepting gifts are clear in the future. The Observer's news partner, WCNC-TV, first broke the story in November.

State ABC Commission Chair Jonathan Williams, who ordered an investigation by the state Alcohol Law Enforcement Division, commended the board.

“I am pleased to learn the Mecklenburg ABC is taking steps to ensure that this situation is not repeated in the future,” Williams said in a prepared statement, “and also has taken action to address some of the specific questions surrounding the propriety of receiving a gift of this nature.”

He said the investigation is ongoing and that he couldn't comment further.

The state ABC commission runs the central warehouse through which local stores buy their liquor and handles liquor law violation cases but has rarely exerted authority over liquor stores. Those are run by the local boards that are appointed by county commissions and city councils.

Helms, who attended the dinner with his wife Eleanor, is paying $1,000. He was the only board member in attendance. Among the staff, CEO Calvin McDougal, who was accompanied by his wife Portia at the dinner, is paying $4,000. Both men are covering the tab for staffers for whom repayment would be a financial hardship. Other staff must pay $330 each.

A statement issued by the Mecklenburg board suggested that London-based Diageo, which makes brands such as Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker Scotch, wouldn't gain much by picking up the bill: “The Mecklenburg County ABC system has no business relation[sic] with Diageo other than selling its products in ABC stores in Mecklenburg County.”

The state ABC warehouse essentially serves as storage for the local stores' liquor and sets prices. The distillers still own the liquor until the stores buy it. The local stores determine what is ordered for the warehouse and then pay for it.

Helms said a steady stream of government scandal stories had caused an overreaction to news of the dinner.

“In the business world, you have meetings and dinners with the people whose products you sell,” he said. The Mecklenburg board's statement also said that, in the past, the state commission exempted unsolicited meals from state laws prohibiting distillers from giving gifts to retailers.

In a recent interview with WCNC-TV, Williams said: “In the sales and commercial world, wining and dining is part of how business is done,” he said, “but we're public servants.”

Local board members from Mecklenburg and other jurisdictions have been criticized in the past for annual conferences where liquor companies and others who do business with the state provided drinks, subsidized golf and other freebies. Organizers dropped the golf game from the schedule in 2007 after an Observer story about one of the conferences.



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Sources: WRAL, McClatchy Newspapers, Newsobserver, Charlotte Observer, Charmeck.org, The Meck Deck Blog, John Locke Foundation, WCNC, Google Maps