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Ex-Pa. liquor officials cited in ethics investigation, fined

HARRISBURG — Three former top officials at the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board must pay the state thousands of dollars for various gifts, such as dinners and golf trips, they accepted from alcohol marketers and others, the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission said Monday.

The Liquor Control Board’s former chairman Patrick Stapleton III, chief executive Joe Conti and marketing director James Short violated the ethics law when they did not report accepting the gifts, the ethics commission said.

Under a consent agreement issued by the commission, Short must pay the state $13,586, Stapleton $7,258 and Conti $2,388. Stapleton left the agency in 2012, Conti left last year and Short left last week.

State law also does not allow LCB members and staff to accept any gifts from the industry it regulates, ethics commission executive director Robert Caruso said.

The reports, a total of nearly 148 pages, list numerous golf trips, wine tasting trips, dinners, event tickets, trinkets, liquor and more that were offered to the men, much of it by companies that market liquor and wine to the Liquor Control Board. One gift was a $500 iPad.

In 2010 and 2011, Short attended three all-expenses-paid golf trips, one to California and two to Florida, paid for by companies that do business with the LCB, the report said.

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