Coveted bottles of Pappy Van Winkle Whiskey, several of which were central to an investigation into Oregon state officials last year. (Photo: Old Rip Van Winkle)
Little over a year after six Oregon government officials were implicated in an alleged liquor embezzlement scandal, a state probe has concluded that no criminal charges are warranted in the case.
The incident first came to a head in Feb. 2023, when Executive Director of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission Steve Marks was accused of "diverting" rare bourbons for "personal use." Marks' agency had been tasked with overseeing a state-run liquor lottery that raffled off whiskeys to the public at well below the going market price.
An investigation alleged that Marks and five top officials used their "knowledge and connections" to obtain certain bourbons for themselves. Among the spirits was a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 — $300 through the lottery, $52,000 for everyone else.
After the story broke, Marks resigned at the request of Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, who deemed the behavior "wholly unacceptable" and a "wrongful violation" of ethics laws. Now, following an internal investigation that scoured through thousands of documents and interviewed dozens of employees, state investigators appear to be changing their tune.
“Even though the employees’ behavior may have breached ethical standards, there is no explicit policy prohibiting the specific conduct, we found no evidence of relevant training, and the practice appears to have been longstanding and endorsed by at least one executive director," the department stated in its report.
Throughout interviews with investigators, Marks openly admitted that he benefitted from preferential treatment "to some extent" as the agency's executive director. However, Marks insisted that he never resold any of the whiskeys at a profit.
Officials had initially considered charging Marks and the alleged co-conspirators with using confidential information for personal gain. Though the bourbons had been funneled to employees through nonpublic information, the value of the bottles themselves had never been increased after the fact, nor were government employees specifically forbidden from purchasing their own agency's spirits.
Following the announcement by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, Gov. Tina Kotek clarified that a separate ethics probe is still forthcoming.
“While the investigation found that the conduct reviewed did not meet the burden necessary for criminal prosecution, the documents and reports resulting from the extensive criminal investigation will be available to the Oregon Government Ethics commission for consideration in its pending review of ethics complaints related to this matter," Kotek said.
