Liquor company marketer says he bought meals for ABC officials(2)
North Carolina’s administrative rules for ABC officials prohibits both distillers and ABC employees from giving or receiving “anything of value.”
“Store personnel shall not accept anything of value from distiller representatives at any time,” reads the administrative rules. Liquor company representatives are also restricted from entering ABC stores or contacting ABC officials after hours to push their products.
Stevens said the ABC commission has not asked ALE for any follow-up investigation at this time. A spokesman for the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, which oversees the ALE, said any investigation into New Hanover’s ABC would have to be prompted by the state ABC Commission as was done in Mecklenburg.
Despite Iredale’s statement to law enforcement, local officials insisted that Diageo officials haven’t treated them to any meals.
ABC Administrator Billy Williams said he went to lunch with a sales representative from Diageo more than a year ago, but said he paid for his meal.
“Normally I pay out of my pocket,” he said. “I don’t ask the board to reimburse me. If it’s only $12 or $14, I don’t ask for reimbursement. Not for something that small.”
Former ABC board member Stephen Culbreth said he’d never been treated by Diageo representatives to a meal.
“If Diageo has ever taken anybody from Wilmington out to eat, I’m unaware of it,” he said.
Culbreth, along with Richard Hanson and Charles Wells, resigned from New Hanover County’s ABC Board on Monday in the wake of controversy over the salaries paid to Williams and his son, Bradley Williams, the local ABC assistant administrator.
The controversy over liquor company representatives improperly purchasing meals and entertainment for ABC officials came to light recently in Mecklenburg County.
The Charlotte Observer reported that Diageo picked up a $12,700 tab at a fancy steak house in Charlotte on Nov. 18, with company officials shelling out $9,334 in dinner and drinks alone for 28 ABC employees and spouses. In the wake of the criticism, the Mecklenberg officials paid Diageo back for the dinner.
Besides Mecklenburg and New Hanover counties, Iredale said he had bought meals for officials in Asheville, Lenoir, Greensboro, Carteret County, Onslow County and the Triad ABC in Winston-Salem.
