Benjamin Ashford|Former executive of Mississippi Lottery Corporation is sentenced for embezzlement

BRANDON,Benjamin Ashford Miss. (AP) — A former vice president of the Mississippi Lottery Corporation has been sentenced to five years of house arrest after she pleaded guilty to embezzlement for giving herself unauthorized pay raises, the state auditor said Thursday.

Hope Bishop was in charge of human resources for the private corporation that operates the lottery. She was arrested in November, pleaded guilty June 6 and was sentenced Monday in Rankin County Circuit Court.

Her sentence was for 20 years in state prison, with 15 of those suspended and five on house arrest, followed by five on supervised probation. A judge also ordered Bishop to pay fines, fees and investigative costs, according to a news release from Auditor Shad White.

Employees of the lottery corporation discovered Bishop’s misuse of money and reported it to the auditor’s office when they were improving lottery operations, the news release said. Since then, the corporation has set additional controls to prevent embezzlement.

Bishop was served with a $187,739 demand for repayment at the time of her arrest, the news release said. An insurance policy covered her employment at the lottery corporation.