The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices voted last week to investigate the source of .3 million funding of a campaign that earlier this year successfully qualified an initiative that would authorize a casino in Southern Maine, but only one man would qualify for it: Shawn Scott and his Nevada-based Capital Seven LLC.
The commission is starting its investigation with an impasse since attorneys for the campaign have so far refused to accept subpoenas from the panel.
Shawn Scott, based in the is the same person who in 2003 successfully qualified a ballot initiative that led to authorizing the Bangor casino, which he then sold to Penn National Gaming Inc. for $51 million, which then opened Hollywood Slots. The campaign’s public face is his sister, Lisa Scott, who first began efforts to gather signatures in 2015. That first effort was foiled when the Secretary of State held that more than half of the petitions were invalid, forcing the effort to start again almost from scratch. That effort succeeded.
The commission asserts that funding for the campaign didn’t come from Scott but from loans from Tokyo and Las Vegas-based companies.
Attorneys for the Scotts refused to accept subpoenas from the commission, insisting that they have committed no infraction.
