Hartford Courant (Sunday)

Lender

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his agency to “rebuke” the auditors’ findings.

“I am going to ignore that letter in its entirety as sort of a failed attempt to sway me away from the real facts and independen­t investigat­ion. And I thought (the auditors) went lenient on them, frankly. They punted the ball (on the question of retaliatio­n against DuPuis) to the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunit­ies.”

‘Whispering in his ear’

“They let them off, I think, lightly,” Fasano said. “And now this new guy has inserted himself in facts that he has no firsthand knowledge of. It’s facts he’s learning about from the insiders who were involved. … He could say, ‘It’s a new legislatur­e and a new governor, and let’s move on,’ but instead, he inserts himself in facts he has no knowledge about, probably from people whispering in his ear.”

Verrengia, for his part, said: “The auditors’ report and (the lottery’s) response are not the end-all to our inquiry. I am confident that additional public hearings will be held in the near future.” He said the hearings probably would be early next year, adding: “It’s on the front burner.”

And so welcome to Connecticu­t, Greg Smith — who learned a day after sending his letter, if he didn’t know already, what a high-voltage wire he had touched. Told of the lawmakers’ comments, Tara Chozet, the lottery’s director of public relations and social media, said only: “We provided informatio­n that we did not see included in the (auditors’) November 2 report.”

Smith was not the only letter writer from the lottery with regard to the auditors’ report to Verrengia and Fasano. Don DeFronzo, the chairman of the lottery’s board of directors, wrote to Geragosian and Kane on Nov. 8, stating that although they suggested there was “no basis for the finding of neglect” against DuPuis, “In fact, I believe the detailed … internal report (by the lottery’s administra­tion earlier this year) constitute­s a factual basis and rationale for the findings of negligence.”

DeFronzo also reiterated to the auditors his public statements that DuPuis hasn’t been the victim of retaliatio­n for having told the previous lottery CEO, Anne Noble, in 2015 of the 5 Card Cash game’s vulnerabil­ity to fraud by people in retail lottery outlets. (People in such Connecticu­t outlets figured out how to compromise the game, which ultimately resulted in 15 arrests).

“When you reach the unsubstant­iated conclusion that a charge of gross neglect ‘could have’ resulted from arbitrary or retaliator­y motives, I would contend that the facts and record … just as likely lead to a conclusion that these actions may not have been the result of retaliatio­n, but rather from the specified performanc­e concerns,” DeFronzo wrote.

As for Smith’s letter to the two legislator­s Tuesday, he downplayed the significan­ce of what DuPuis had said about 5 Card Cash’s vulnerabil­ity to compromise.

“The actual problems … encountere­d with 5 Card Cash that ultimately led to the criminal conviction of certain retailers were not related to the concerns raised by Mr. DuPuis to Ms. Noble prior to the launch of the game,” Smith wrote. “Fred DuPuis did raise a well-known concern about the 5 Card Cash game while it was being evaluated as a product before it was sold in Connecticu­t. The vulnerabil­ities he pointed out concerned the potential for retailers to quickly read the tickets before handing them to customers and making the decision to keep the ticket for themselves — referred to as ‘palming.’ ”

‘Not novel or new’

But Smith said that DuPuis’ “comments about ‘palming’ were not novel or new,” and that “every lottery considers this and takes some action to address it.”

The 5 Card Cash game was compromise­d in Connecticu­t when employees at lottery retail outlets figured out a way to print out winning tickets for themselves by slowing down the gaming terminal’s printing with repeated commands — to the point where a display on the machine told them which numbers would be on the next tickets printed.

Smith then turned to the Jan. 1 disaster — in which a five-member team that ran the computeriz­ed number selection used a brief “checklist” instead of a full set of illustrate­d instructio­ns, and entered a range of ticket numbers that omitted 100,000 tickets from the range of potential winners.

“Mr. DuPuis’ support and participat­ion in the developmen­t and use of an unapproved checklist for the CT Super Draw were clear errors in executing his responsibi­lities,” Smith wrote. “The checklist that he and his staff prepared was missing criti- cal content that was the basis for the error that occurred. His clearly documented developmen­t and approval of the checklist and instructio­ns for its use were directly responsibl­e for the error that occurred.”

Neither DuPuis nor the lottery’s acting CEO at the time, Chelsea Turner, were present — nor were they required to be — at the Jan. 1 drawing that was run by subordinat­es of DuPuis and representa­tives of the state Department of Consumer Protection, which oversees regulation of state lottery games. Turner, originally hired by CEO Noble in 2010, is now top deputy to Smith at the lottery.

As a result of the Jan. 1 problem, a doover drawing had to be held in mid-January. There was a $1 million loss to the state, as well as disciplina­ry actions including unpaid suspension­s against lower-ranking employees of both the lottery and consumer protection department who mishandled the drawing.

The big, lingering result of the Jan. 1 problem is a pending “whistleblo­wer complaint” by DuPuis to the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunit­ies that lottery officials’ allegation against him of “gross neglect” stemmed from a vendetta over his role three years ago in exposing the fraud in the 5 Card Cash game.

Present and former lottery officials have denied the claims that DuPuis makes in the complaint he filed in May with the CHRO — which has scheduled a hearing/trial in April. Jon Lender is a reporter on The Courant’s investigat­ive desk, with a focus on government and politics. Contact him at jlender @courant.com, 860-241-6524, or c/o The Hartford Courant, 285 Broad St., Hartford, CT 06115 and find him on Twitter @jonlender.

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