
DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 1997         TAG: 9709240434

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   85 lines

BINGO CASE YIELDS SECOND GUILTY PLEA CHESAPEAKE MAN WAS ASKED TO TESTIFY IN A TRIAL NEXT WEEK.

A retired representative of a bingo supply company caught up in an alleged embezzlement scam pleaded guilty Tuesday to falsifying documents submitted to a state agency.

Keith H. Ward, 64, of Chesapeake was sentenced in the city's Circuit Court to six months in jail, all suspended, with no fine. He could have received a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Ward, whose original embezzlement charge had been downgraded, had worked for Baltimore-based bingo supplier Frank Moran and Sons until this year.

Jeffrey G. Moran, the company's vice president, was convicted last week of falsifying the same gaming invoice for Deep Creek Baseball Association's bingo operation. Moran was ordered to pay restitution of $24,310 to Deep Creek Baseball Association.

Chesapeake Circuit Court Judge V. Thomas Forehand Jr. said the Ward case demonstrated the need to clean up criminal elements that often plague charitable bingo games.

``Mr. Ward, you made a mistake,'' Forehand said. ``Sir, this has been an area that has been very thorny. . . .There is so much opportunity to steal, to skim.

``The public needs to know that when they go to play bingo that is actually to benefit the Red Cross, little league, whatever. . . .But for the charitable aspect, we would not have bingo.''

The Deep Creek youth baseball league has filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against five people and Moran and Sons claiming they embezzled more than $1 million from their program.

Originally charged with embezzlement, both Moran and Ward pleaded guilty to downgraded charges and have been asked to testify in the trial of former Deep Creek bingo manager George West, beginning Sept. 29.

According to prosecutors and court documents, West asked Ward and Moran in September 1996 to record his purchase of instant bingo tickets - known as ``pull-tabs'' - as paint pens. They did, creating a false document that allowed Moran to keep the sale and West to use the tickets for his own gain without having to report the purchase of tickets to the state Charitable Gaming Commission, officials said.

``Mr. West asked him to write up a different receipt,'' said Rhonda McGarvey, a senior assistant attorney general who handled the state's case against Ward Tuesday. ``But Mr. Ward was not inclined to do so without calling the supplier, his bosses at Frank Moran.''

`` 'Cause my boss told me to'' was Ward's explanation for his crime, he said in an interview outside the courtroom.

Tuesday's trial sets up what prosecutors said will be the main event in this alleged bingo scam: the embezzlement trial of George West.

West, a Virginia Beach resident, has denied the allegation through his attorney that he bought instant bingo tickets with several checks from the baseball association and disposed of them in an unauthorized way between May 1996 and February 1997.

Purchase of instant bingo tickets, which are sold for $1 and look like Virginia Lottery tickets, are regulated by the state Charitable Gaming Commission, which now oversees all bingo and other charitable gambling operations.

In South Hampton Roads, charitable gambling organizations collected almost $50 million in the 1996 fiscal year and spent about $3.7 million of that for charitable purposes after expenses and prize money.

``Mr. Ward reaped no financial benefit. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,'' said Ward's attorney, Steven Lieberman.

The state is also pursuing other criminal investigations associated with bingo fraud in this area, said assistant attorney general McGarvey, who declined to give details. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

THE PLAYERS

Keith H. Ward:

The retired bingo supply employee was sentenced to six months in

jail, all suspended, with no fine, for falsifying documents. The

original charge of embezzlement was downgraded in return for

testimony against bingo manager George West.

Jeffrey G. Moran:

The bingo supplier's vice president was convicted for falsifying

documents and ordered to pay $24,310 in restitution. Moran has also

agreed to testify against West in exchange for a downgraded charge.

WHAT'S NEXT

George W. West: The trial of the former Deep Creek bingo manager