RICHMOND, VA. - An attorney for former North Carolina lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings asked a federal appeals court Thursday to free him from prison.

Geddings, a former Charlotte businessman, is serving a four-year sentence at a federal prison camp in Jessup, Ga., in connection with his service on the lottery commission in 2005. A jury convicted him of fraud for not disclosing $250,000 worth of advertising and consulting work he did for lottery companies in the years before his appointment.

Geddings' attorney, Jonathan Edelstein, argued Thursday that the omission on state ethics forms -- and attempts to conceal the payments -- should not have been enough to warrant prison time.

The appeal reopens a scandal that tainted the start of the state lottery and helped cause the fall of other political insiders, including former Democratic House Speaker Jim Black of Matthews.

Geddings owned Charlotte-area radio stations and ran an advertising and political consulting firm. He advised a governor and legislators throughout the Carolinas, and he once contemplated a campaign for Charlotte mayor.

His appeal likely represents the last chance to clear his name, because the U.S. Supreme Court takes so few cases. His family, including his wife and father, attended Thursday's hearing.

At issue is a federal law that makes it a crime for a government official to deprive the public of "honest services." Edelstein said the law has been interpreted too broadly, arguing that Geddings did not try to profit from his lottery position.

In reply, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bruce pointed to Geddings' frequent contact with Alan Middleton, a friend who was also a top lobbyist for lottery vendor Scientific Games. He also pointed to e-mail messages Geddings sent that other lottery commissioners interpreted as disparaging to a Scientific Games rival.

The three judges showed little sympathy for Geddings' plight. "He took a job on which he had a conflict of interest, which he covered up," Judge Paul Niemeyer, the panel's lead judge, said at one point.

Several times, the judges wondered aloud whether Geddings' own words incriminate him. They brought up Geddings' statement to a Scientific Games lawyer that he knew he wouldn't have gotten the lottery position if he had disclosed his previous ties.

A ruling from the panel could come at any time.

Through his attorneys, family members declined to comment.

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