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Topeka — Kansas Lottery officials say Richard Lee Knowlton is the only current or former lottery employee embroiled in the Kansas Bureau of Investigation probe that brought his arrest on 268 counts.

But Knowlton says that in the past two to three years at the lottery there have been "numerous cover-ups and other apparent illegal activity."

Sources have told the Journal-World of at least one other investigation at the agency. It is one the Graves' administration won't confirm. It began in November 1999, months before the official KBI investigation started in March.

Though the earlier investigation produced no arrests, one ranking lottery official was fired. And the review, by officials from the Department of Administration, set the stage for the KBI investigation and the subsequent firing of lottery director Greg Ziemak.

Months before Knowlton was forced in March to leave the lottery, anonymous complaints about misconduct among various lottery employees prompted a Graves' administration review of the agency.

The complaints caused the suspension in mid-November 1999, of Bill Griffin, then the lottery's sales director. Griffin remained on the payroll during the investigation of his and subordinates' activities. But he was terminated at the end of the month, the sources said.

Graves' spokesman would not confirm or deny Griffin's firing.

"Any incidents alleged to have occurred are related to personnel issues, which we are not allowed to comment on," Graves' spokesman Don Brown said.

Problems brought to light by the review coupled with failure by Ziemak to control Griffin's actions and those of other lottery employees prompted the administration's demand in March for Ziemak's resignation.

Ziemak was allowed to remain after Sen. Lana Oleen, R-Manhattan, and Jim Cates, chairman of the Kansas Lottery Commission, intervened on his behalf. Oleen is chairwoman of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, which oversees the lottery.

Also in March:

Knowlton, head of the agency's information and technology division, resigned after being linked with tampered lottery tickets.

Dick Barta resigned his enforcement-agent position at the lottery to become Shawnee County Sheriff.

Barta said he left the lottery within days of the ticket-rigging allegations surfacing.

"I tell you it was a total surprise to me when I first saw the evidence and we first started looking, first to see if it could possibly be done, and who possibly could do it," Barta said.

"When I left, I personally did not know who within the lottery may have done this or where the investigation would lead."

But, Barta said, preliminary information indicated the scheme required "a very good knowledge and understanding of the computer games," pointing to "somebody in the information resource systems."

Barta said he knew nothing of the complaints or problems that resulted in Griffin's firing.

"I never heard of anything like that. I never witnessed anything like that," he said. "I felt inside, nothing tarnished the integrity of the lottery."

Ziemak announced last week that he is resigning effective Oct. 1.