The Oregon Department of Justice is completing its criminal investigation into the rare bourbon scandal

The Oregon Department of Justice will not pursue criminal charges against employees of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission for misusing coveted bottles of rare spirits for themselves and lawmakers, Oregon Assistant Attorney General Lisa Upland said in a letter to Gov. Tina on Monday Kotek.

According to Upland’s letter, the OLCC had a “long-standing agency practice” whereby an OLCC employee could request that a specific product be delivered to a liquor store for personal purchase. This practice predates the 2018 Chance to Purchase Program, a lottery-like program that allows the public to win the option to purchase sought-after liquor. One employee interviewed said the practice existed before she came to OLCC 30 years ago.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation found that there was no specific written policy prohibiting or permitting the internal sales practice, or training to discourage employees from engaging in the practice.

The Oregon Government Ethics Commission is currently conducting an ethics review of employee conduct. The Commission has access to documents and reports from the criminal investigations.

A DOJ investigation was launched in February 2023 after an internal investigation revealed that top OLCC leaders used their positions to divert rare bottles of bourbon for at least eight years.

Six OLCC employees, including then-Executive Director Steven Marks, were identified as participants in the initial investigation. Marks resigned after Kotek asked him to resign. Oregon Department of Corrections Inspector General Craig Prins was named interim director following Marks’ resignation.

Thousands of documents, 40 interviews as part of the OLCC investigation

According to Upland’s letter, more than 40 people were interviewed during the investigation, including former and current commission employees, staff members, OLCC commissioners, liquor distributors, clerks, staff, legislators and citizens who filed complaints.

She said investigators also reviewed more than 10,000 internal OLCC documents, reports and emails.

“It is critical that Oregonians trust our state agencies, their leaders and employees. “I am pleased with the thoroughness of the investigation and the professionalism of our DOJ team, led by CJ (Criminal Justice) Chief Counsel Slauson, which also includes AAGs Kurt Miller and Toby Tingleaf and Special Agents Vince Cui and Keri Jasso.” the press release said.

Agents discovered that several OLCC employees, including individuals who were also subjects of the internal OLCC investigation, occasionally asked the acting OLCC distribution center manager to send a specific bottle of liquor to a specific store for purchase. The OLCC sales manager then contacted a liquor store to inform employees that the product was being shipped for a specific customer.

The Criminal Justice Division report said the manager could not provide details about a specific case in which a requested product was forwarded to a specific OLCC employee.

The Justice Department report says business records show a liquor store near an OLCC office was frequently used to facilitate these types of purchases. The report did not mention the name of the store that transferred ownership according to the data examined. The new owners did not have the inventory or point of sale data relevant to the investigation.

When the former liquor retailer, the previous owner and the previous owner’s employees were interviewed, no details or particulars of a transaction with an OLCC employee were also disclosed, the report said.

“We found that the evidence before us supported the conclusion that some employees used their positions to obtain high-demand, hard-to-find liquor for themselves or others, but that evidence was insufficient to establish the details of a case “I have done this in order to determine where an employee worked,” the report concludes.

According to the report, the Criminal Justice Division also sued for the bank records of some OLCC employees to try to reverse-trace purchases. However, upon reviewing these financial records, agents were unable to identify a specific liquor purchase that was directly related to a requested transfer.

No criminal charges are warranted, the Oregon DOJ concludes

The DOJ’s report said the investigation found that evidence “clearly established” two elements of first-degree official misconduct, but evidence that the employees’ actions were “substantially unauthorized” or that they knew the conduct was unauthorized is not so clear.

“While the employees’ behavior may have violated ethical standards, there is no explicit policy prohibiting the specific behavior, we found no evidence of relevant training, and the practice appears to have been long-standing and endorsed by at least one executive director the DOJ report said.

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