SBI probing Kentucky distillery tours taken by NC lawmakers and lobbyists
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- SBI asked to probe a 2024 distillery trip tied to Greater Carolina.
- Complaints alleged violations of ethics, lobbying, gift bans and disclosure rules.
- Greater Carolina trip probe may focus on lawmakers, lobbyists and nondisclosure issues.
The State Bureau of Investigation has launched a probe into trips sponsored by a nonprofit with ties to a former powerful lawmaker that took state legislators and lobbyists on distillery tours in Kentucky in 2022 and 2024.
The investigation will specifically look for violations of the State Ethics Act and State Lobbying Act, “but we will go wherever the evidence leads us,” Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman told The News & Observer.
“The primary focus is Greater Carolina and the bourbon trip to the Louisville area,” Freeman said in an interview.
The investigation follows a complaint by Carolina Forward, filed more than a year earlier in August 2024 that claimed lobbying, ethics and charitable solicitation laws were violated by the nonprofit Greater Carolina, lawmakers who attended and lobbyists who promoted and attended the 2024 tour.
The complaint called the group a “lobbying front,” providing gambling-industry officials and their lobbyists access to state lawmakers for “development events,” and using its status as a social welfare group known in the federal tax code as a 501(c)(4) organization to avoid disclosure.
The complaint also accused Greater Carolina of violating the state’s ban on gifts to public officials, and that it is not disclosing its relationships with lobbyists involved in its events. It has not reported hiring any lobbyists to state officials.
The trip in April 2024 may not have become public knowledge if the entourage hadn’t shown up at a distillery drunk and unruly, which a distillery employee described on a Reddit post. She said 33 people were in the group.
The 2022 trip was disclosed by Freeman on Friday afternoon in a statement to WRAL. She confirmed the earlier trip but declined to provide further details.
Former Rep. Jason Saine, a Lincolnton Republican and then a chief House budget writer, was the only lawmaker to acknowledge going on the 2024 tour in the days after. In its complaint, Carolina Forward submitted receipts showing distillery purchases by Reps. Kyle Hall of King and David Willis of Union County. Both are Republicans.
Republicans control both chambers of the North Carolina legislature with strong majorities. Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate said they weren’t invited on the 2024 trip.
Details on complaints
In May, The N&O reported that Greater Carolina had not filed a report with the N.C. Secretary of State disclosing who went and at what cost, and neither Saine, Hall or Willis had reported the 2024 tour on their statements of economic interest that are required to be filed annually with the State Ethics Commission.
Carolina Forward is a left-leaning nonprofit political group in Carrboro led by Blair Reeves. He was unaware the SBI had begun an investigation and glad to learn it is underway, he said Friday.
“It’s very, very overdue,” he said, “but I hope we get to the bottom of this issue.”
Reeves filed the complaint with the N.C. Secretary of State, which regulates lobbying and charities; the State Ethics Commission, the State Legislative Ethics Committee and the Internal Revenue Service.
Freeman said she allowed “other entities to take an investigational lead” before she requested the SBI investigate in September. She did not identify those entities or what they may have found.
Those agencies have strict limits on what they can say about complaints and investigations.
The complaint requests that authorities investigate Saine and his former legislative aide Clark Riemer, who is now a lobbyist; Greater Carolina Director David Coble; lobbyists Anna Scott Marsh and Kevin Wilkinson; and former lobbyist Russell Peck, who is also a former NC Republican Party executive director.
The complaint said Marsh was an early fundraising contact for Greater Carolina, and since 2023 has represented three gaming companies as a lobbyist. Wilkinson invited lawmakers to the 2024 distillery trip and Peck was listed on a payment record from a distillery, the complaint said.
Riemer formed Greater Carolina in 2018. Coble is a Mooresville businessman and former town commissioner who sometimes co-hosts a radio show with Saine.
Saine left the legislature in August 2024. He joined The Southern Group’s Raleigh office three months later, in November. Wilkinson leads that office, which he opened for The Florida-based firm a week before the distillery tour.
Coble, Saine, Hall, Willis and the lobbyists named in the complaint could not be immediately reached for comment.
What is Greater Carolina?
Greater Carolina describes itself as a “pro- free market conservative” coalition, but the sole output on its website is a survey and study that support expanding gambling in North Carolina. It released both at a time Saine and other state lawmakers were eyeing gambling expansion to bring more revenue. They were pushing legislation that would have ushered in the state’s first casinos on non-Indian land.
Coble also has been the local representative for developer Mooresville BTR, which won $15 million from a provision inserted in the final version of the 2023 state budget that largely paid for the road running through its soon-to-be completed mixed-use development in the fast-growing town. A year earlier, the developer had said it would pay for the road, which connects two north-south thoroughfares in the town, in seeking approval from the town.
Wilkinson is one of Mooresville BTR’s lobbyists. Saine became another after joining The Southern Group.
Freeman said she expected the SBI’s investigation will take several more months to complete.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated to reflect that Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said the SBI is investigating two Greater Carolina distillery tours.
This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 12:18 PM with the headline "SBI probing Kentucky distillery tours taken by NC lawmakers and lobbyists."