The first director of the Minnesota State Lottery enthusiastically supported a bass fishing tournament, giving it additional state money and other assistance even though lottery staff members doubted its promotional value, according to court papers released Friday.
George Andersen's unusual role as lottery director and booster of the now-defunct Minnesota Pro/Am Bass Tour is described by a state investigator in papers filed to obtain search warrants. Andersen committed suicide in 2004 after state auditors criticized lottery promotional deals.
The search warrants, issued in June 2004, have remained sealed until now while the state Public Safety Department's Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division investigated Andersen's business relationship with a St. Paul company that owned the bass tour.
Doug Forsman, the lead agent on the investigation, said Friday the case has been turned over to the Ramsey County attorney's office for consideration of possible criminal charges.
The bass tour, last held in 2003, was a summer-long series of fishing contests in which anglers competed on several lakes to catch bass for prize money and merchandise.
As one of the sponsors, the lottery's name appeared on signs, on television and on promotional materials.
Andersen, an avid fisherman, participated in the contests, but his interest in the event went deeper, though he had no financial stake in it, according to a search warrant affidavit written by Forsman.
It said there was probable cause to believe that Andersen used his lottery position to "influence and conspire" with two principals of a St. Paul public relations company to gain control of the event.
Michael Lange, a lottery marketing manager, told investigators that he and other lottery employees were directly involved in soliciting lottery partners to sponsor the bass tour, including the Star Tribune, Treasure Island Casino, Anheuser-Busch and four professional sports teams.
Lottery workers also helped stage the bass tour because its owners "did not have the expertise to run the event," Lange told investigators.
Andersen subverted the lottery's normal approval process by directing $27,300 in "supplemental cash sponsorships" to the event in 2002 and again in 2003, Lange told investigators.
Lottery staff members concluded the tour's cost exceeded its promotional value, the court papers said. Dale McDonnell, in-house legal counsel for the lottery, told investigators that he told Andersen that the lottery should not be involved in running a bass tournament, "but Andersen did not want to be told what to do."
Instead, Andersen progressively increased the lottery's sponsorship of the fishing tournament because it was losing money, Lange told investigators.
The bass tour was owned by a company closely linked to Media Rare, a St. Paul public relations firm that had several lucrative promotional contracts with the lottery. Neither company still operates.
Jeff Denney, the last owner of Media Rare, said Friday that the supplemental payments to the bass tour in 2002 and 2003 were for work ordered by the lottery.
He described the county attorney's review for possible criminal charges as a "formality." Asked if he fears being charged with a crime, he said, "No, absolutely not."
Denney folded the bass tour when audit questions led to the lottery's withdrawal as a sponsor, the affidavit said.
Andersen was 53 when he was found dead outside his Hugo home on Jan. 27, 2004. The previous day he had met with state auditors who criticized the lottery's backing of the bass tour and no-compete contracts with Media Rare worth more than $1 million a year.
The investigation by the Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division started soon after Andersen's death. Using the search warrants, investigators seized records of Media Rare, related companies and its former owner.
Michael Priesnitz, who founded Media Rare and became a fishing buddy of Andersen, attempted suicide one week after Andersen, the affidavit said. In April 2005, Priesnitz died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in International Falls.
A 2004 report by the legislative auditor's office said that the bass tour wasn't well known among fisherman but that the lottery had clung to its sponsorship even while withdrawing as sponsor of major sports and other events.
One lottery employee, promotions director John Mellein, told investigators that Media Rare and the bass tour were considered "untouchable" interests of Andersen.
"Mellein stated there was no one in the lottery that felt they could challenge George Andersen," the affidavit said.
Andersen's enthusiasm for the tournament was evident in a memo found by investigators after his death. According to the investigator's affidavit, the lottery director twice tried to persuade the Ontario Lottery Commission to jointly sponsor an international bass tournament with Minnesota.
In correspondence with Ontario officials in 2001, Andersen wrote that they should sponsor a fishing tournament that allowed amateurs so that he could fish in it, the affidavit said.
"We have all the equipment, expertise and experience needed to put on the entire event," according to an excerpt from Andersen's correspondence. "So, what do you think? Should we work on it? Do you have lots of cash to spend? Let's discuss. It will be an enormous amount of fun."
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