It does look as though man always looks for the best possible way to do things – but sometimes, the shortcuts that we take in life makes us end up on the wrong side of the law. Take Eddie Tipton for instance – he allegedly hacked into the lottery computer in order to fix the draw of the winning numbers. This has led to the former US lottery security boss to be slapped with charges of fraud.
Eddie Raymond Tipton, as he is known, did have the job of being the security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, although his career path was halted when the long arm of the law came knocking on his door in January earlier this year. Prosecutors claimed that his actions, eventually led him to be caught on CCTV as he purchased the winning ticket, although it must be noted that the $14.3 million prize was not claimed.
In his defense, Mr. Tipton has denied all charges against him. Court papers that prosecutors filed mentioned that the 51-year-old “may have inserted a thumb drive into a highly locked-down computer that’s supposed to generate the random numbers used to determine lottery winners”.
Should Mr. Tipton be found guilty of the two charges of fraud, he could end up in the slammer for up to 5 years, and being hit with a $7,500 fine to boot.