Don Beason, once one of the state's most influential lobbyists, is fighting allegations that he conspired to skirt state laws by secretly representing companies that wanted to sell Indian iron for road construction.
Beason took the stand Monday at an administrative court hearing on his appeal of a $111,000 fine levied this year by Secretary of State Elaine Marshall's office - a fine said to be the state's largest ever for lobbying law violations.
In 2007, Beason was registered to lobby for Sigma, a New Jersey pipe-fitting company. The state claims that Beason was also working for a trade association connected to India and four other companies.
The state presented evidence Monday that the companies funneled money through Sigma to pay Beason to have him work on getting legislators to weaken or repeal the North CarolinaBuy America law.
Beason said he didn't know that some of the Sigma payments were actually coming from other companies.
"Sigma contacted other members and got the group to support their effort, but they never discussed that with me," he said.
State law requires lobbyists to publicly identify all the companies they work for. The law also requires companies that hire lobbyists to register with the state.
The companies later registered and were fined, said Assistant Attorney General Brandon Truman. "They admitted they hired the Beasons to lobby for them," he said.
The state has checks from the companies written to Sigma. The state maintains those checks were the companies' contributions toward Beason's pay.
Truman called Beason and Sigma "central conspirators."
John Lynch, an investigator with the Secretary of State's Office, said Beason conspired with the trade association and a Sigma representative to circumvent the state lobbying law and a federal law requiring registration of people who represent foreign interests.
Beason did say he received information from one of the other companies in an effort to counter objections from the state Department of Transportation that Indian iron was inferior and represented a safety hazard.
Just because a lobbyist represents one company doesn't mean that he doesn't talk to companies that have common interests, Beason testified. For example, he said, when he represented BB&T, he talked to other banks about issues.
Beason was forced out of the lobbying business in 2007 after revelations of his connection to scandal involving former state House Speaker Jim Black. Investigators looking into Black found that Beason had given him a $500,000 no-interest loan. At the time, Beason represented the video poker industry, which Black protected from a ban by the legislature.
In his work for Sigma, Beason testified that he did not lobby anyone directly, but advised his son, Mark, and contract lobbyist T. Jerry Williams in their work.
Mark Beason did not get paid. His father said Williams did most of the hard work.
Beason's lawyer, Jack Nichols, wants the case dismissed. In a motion filed last week, Nichols said there is no legal foundation for the fines and that some of the alleged violations don't appear in state law.
