Man charged in lottery scam

Saturday, March 18, 2006 posted 05:51 AM EST

A second worker at a Carlisle truck loading dock has been charged in an unsuccessful lottery scam in which a pool of 18 workers almost split $850,492 in winnings.

James A. Koons Jr., 37, of Schuylkill County is accused of creating a bogus ticket for the Oct. 19, 2005, drawing by scanning losing tickets into his home computer and altering their numbers, Attorney General Tom Corbett says.

Koons was charged before District Judge Susan Day with forgery, unlawful use of a computer and tampering with a public record.

Only 2 involved

At the same time, authorities also modified the original charges against one of Koons' coworkers and said the investigation is considered closed. The other 16 members of the pool and workers at Roadway Express are not implicated in any criminal activity, officials say.

Authorities now say Brian Scott Miller, 34, of Pheasant Drive South in North Middleton Township attempted to cash the forged tickets but didn't participate in the forgery. As such, all charges against him were dropped and a new charge of making unsworn falsification to authorities has been added.

If convicted, Koons could face up to 10 years in prison and Miller could see up to two.

When Koons arrived at work on Oct. 20, he put the fake tickets under a newspaper in the break room of the Middlesex Township facility, authorities say.

Miller picked them up soon afterward and attempted to cash them the next day, authorities say.

Tickets fail tests

When the tickets failed the first of several validation tests, lottery officials asked Miller to return at a later date to claim his winnings. When he returned, an undercover agent gave him a fake check and, when he attempted to leave, arrested him.

The secretary of the state Department of Revenue told The Sentinel in November that the scam didn't even breach the first layer of validation tests.

To pull off a successful scam, Gregory Fajt said, is "virtually impossible."

It has been tried before, however.

In what is probably the most famous of attempted lottery scams, eight people rigged an April 1980 Daily Number drawing in which the numbers 666 were drawn for the first time ever. The incident was the subject of a 2000 movie titled "Lucky Numbers."

Koons was released on $10,000 unsecured bail pending an April 5 preliminary hearing.

It wasn't clear when Miller would face a preliminary hearing on the newly filed charges.

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