text: Buy Photo Former Multi-State Lottery Association security director Eddie Tipton leaves the Polk County Courthouse after being found guilty of fraud on Monday, July 20, 2015. (Photo: Brian Powers/The Register)Buy Photo 
   
   A former Iowa lottery security official accused of rigging drawings to win prize money in several states is facing new felony charges in Wisconsin. 
   
   A prosecutor in the Wisconsin Department of Justice filed a total of six charges against Eddie Tipton on Thursday, including one count of racketeering, a theft by fraud charge and four computers crimes charges. The charges stem from a suspect December 2007 Megabucks drawing in Wisconsin that allegedly won Tipton and a business associate a prize worth $783,257, according to a criminal complaint. 
   
   The fresh charges are the newest development in the ongoing legal saga involving Tipton, a former information security director for an Urbandale nonprofit group that distributes lottery games nationwide. Tipton, 53, was convicted of two fraud counts in Iowa last year after a prosecutor argued that he tampered with random number generators in 2010 to win a $14.3 million Hot Lotto prize. 
   
   After the conviction, Iowa investigators linked Tipton, his brother and a longtime friend, Robert Rhodes, to suspect jackpots in Colorado, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Kansas and was charged with additional counts of ongoing criminal conduct and money laundering. That case is still pending. 
   
   Defense attorney Dean Stowers has maintained Tipton's innocence since he was first arrested, and said Thursday he will voluntarily appear to answer the charges. Tipton's first case is being appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court after a lower appeals court in July tossed out one of the fraud convictions, ruling that it was filed it too late. 
   
   "What the States have claimed in these cases, as best we can understand, is not a crime under the various statutes they rely upon," Stowers said. "The States basically have claimed that Mr. Tipton shared information about the way the computer programs that were tested and certified by third parties worked, and that does not appear to be a crime under the law of Iowa or Wisconsin." 
   
   A 13-page criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court offers some of the most detailed allegations to date made public to date in the case about the role of Rhodes, a Texas businessman and friend who had known Tipton since the early 1990s. Rhodes is also facing charges in Iowa for allegedly helping Tipton in an ill-fated attempt to redeem the 2010 Hot Lotto ticket worth millions. 
   
   MORE ON TIPTON:Iowa trial moved to February, out of Des Moines 
   
   Rhodes offered his version of events in a meeting with Wisconsin and Iowa investigators in December 2015. According to the complaint, Rhodes claimed that Tipton first approached him about the possibility of rigging a lottery in October 2007. 
   
   "Tipton told Rhodes that there was a way that Tipton could give Rhodes winning lottery numbers and asked if they should take advantage of that," the complaint reads. 
   
   In December 2007, Rhodes met with Tipton in Iowa, and the lottery security manager gave him several index cards filled with series of numbers, according to the complaint. Rhodes told investigators that Tipton instructed him to buy tickets for all of the numbers, ensuring him that one would work. Rhodes traveled to Wisconsin in a rental car, bought the tickets and learned when he got home that he had won a jackpot, according to the complaint. 
   
   Rhodes set up a limited liability corporation to receive the earnings and split half with Tipton, according to the complaint. Tipton told his friend that the scheme was possible because he had programmed random number generators used by the Wisconsin lottery to come up with a predictable number if certain conditions were met. Tipton asked Rhodes again in 2010 if he wanted to try and win another Wisconsin prize, but the Texan felt the two were "tempting fate," and he did not purchase a winning ticket. 
   
   The criminal complaint also claims that Rhodes was shown the winning 2010 Iowa ticket in January or February of the next year while Tipton was visiting him in Houston. Rhodes was initially "upset" when Tipton asked him to claim the prize money, fearing that too many people were involved, according to the complaint. But they agreed to split the proceeds again. 
   
   The criminal complaint also charges Rhodes with racketeering and theft by fraud. 
   
   Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/2ila5VL ||||| × Charged: 2 Texas men accused of defrauding Wisconsin Lottery 
   
   MADISON — Eddie Tipton and Robert Rhodes, both of Texas, have been charged with multiple felonies for their alleged roles in defrauding the Wisconsin Lottery, Attorney General Brad Schimel announced on Friday, December 23rd. 
   
   Tipton and Rhodes are both charged with Engaging in Racketeering Activities and Theft by Fraud. Tipton is also charged with four additional counts of Computer Crime. 
   
   The complaint alleges that the two defendants conspired to win the December 29, 2007, Wisconsin Megabucks lottery game. Tipton, who was an employee of the Multi-State Lottery Association and responsible for programming the software used in the random number generator (RNG) machines used to pick the winning numbers, allegedly planted a modified code in the RNG software that produced a predictable set of winning numbers when certain conditions were met. Tipton allegedly supplied those numbers to Rhodes, who then purchased a ticket with the winning numbers. Rhodes later submitted the winning ticket for payment, and Rhodes and Tipton allegedly split the proceeds totaling $783,257.72. The complaint further alleges that three other Wisconsin Megabucks lottery drawings were manipulated by Tipton’s modified code. 
   
   Tipton will make his initial appearance on February 13, 2017, in Dane County Circuit Court. Rhodes will make his initial appearance on February 16, 2017. 
   
   Tipton and Rhodes also are both currently charged in Iowa with Ongoing Criminal Conduct for their part in attempting to defraud the Iowa lottery in December 2010. ||||| Play Facebook 
   
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   A computer whiz implicated in lottery-rigging schemes in four states has now been charged with fixing a jackpot in a fifth. 
   
   Wisconsin prosecutors filed a criminal complaint Friday against Eddie Tipton and alleged accomplice Robert Rhodes in connection with a 2007 Megabucks drawing that paid out $783,257.72. 
   
   Tipton, 53, was the director of IT security at the Multi-State Lottery Association, the organization that helps run the lottery, including picking the numbers and maintaining security, in 37 states. 
   
   Related: Senator Demands Answers on Lottery Rigging 
   
   Authorities say he planted code in software for the number-generating machines so they would produce predictable numbers on certain dates. He then had Rhodes buy a ticket with numbers he knew would win and they split the proceeds, the complaint says. 
   
   Two years later, Tipton tried to get Rhodes to help him again, showing him a winning ticket for a $16 million jackpot for the Iowa Hot Lotto game, prosecutors said. The IT specialist said he was thinking of having his brother, Tommy, collect it but was worried it would look suspicious since he had won a 2005 Colorado lottery, the court papers say. 
   
   Former lottery security officer Eddie Tipton leaves the Polk County Courthouse in Des Moines, Iowa, after his sentencing in a jackpot-fixing scandal. Charlie Neibergall / AP 
   
   Rhodes tried and failed to collect the winnings through a third party — triggering an investigation that eventually led to Eddie Tipton on trial. He was convicted last July but has maintained his innocence, saying he was scapegoated by investigators. 
   
   Rhodes is scheduled to plead guilty in that case next month, and Tommy Tipton, a former Texas justice of the peace, has also been charged in Iowa. 
   
   Court filings in Iowa note that Eddie Tipton also has ties to lottery winners in other states, including Kansas and Oklahoma.
target: – A former head of lottery security tied to potentially rigged drawings in five states is facing new charges in Wisconsin, NBC News reports. According to the Des Moines Register, six charges were filed against Eddie Tipton on Thursday. They include racketeering, theft by fraud, and computer crimes, Fox 6 News reports. Tipton used to be the director of IT security for Multi-State Lottery Association, which handles lottery picks and security in 37 states. Authorities allege Tipton meddled with the code for the association's number-generating machines to cause them to pick certain numbers on certain days. Last year, he was charged with messing with the number generators to win a $14.3 million drawing in Iowa in 2010. Now Tipton is being charged with doing the same thing three years earlier to win more than $783,000 in Wisconsin. Tipton's alleged accomplice, Robert Rhodes, is also facing charges in Wisconsin and Iowa. Authorities say Tipton would provide Rhodes with rigged numbers and have him buy the tickets. They would allegedly split the winnings. Investigators in Iowa have also linked Tipton, Rhodes, and Tipton's brother to lottery wins in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.