HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board officials knew about an ongoing state police perjury investigation into a northeastern Pennsylvania businessman before the panel awarded him a casino license, the state's top police commander told lawmakers Tuesday.

With gaming board officials apparently saying the opposite — that they knew nothing of the investigation into Louis DeNaples, and that they never asked the state police to investigate — one senator asked who was being untruthful.

In back-to-back hearings Tuesday, Col. Jeffrey Miller, the Pennsylvania State Police commissioner, told the Senate and House Appropriations Committees that one of his troopers told the gaming board's top agents that the investigation was ongoing when they asked about it in the weeks before the panel awarded a casino license to DeNaples.

Miller also said he believes that then-board chairman Tad Decker knew about the investigation before the Dec. 20, 2006, vote.

State police charged DeNaples on Jan. 30 with four counts of perjury and accused him of lying to gaming board agents to win a license for Mount Airy Casino Resort, which DeNaples opened in October. DeNaples is accused of lying about the extent of his relationships with two reputed heads of a Scranton-area organized crime family and two men at the center of a federal investigation into corruption involving Philadelphia City Hall.

DeNaples' lawyers say he is innocent, and are challenging the charges against him.