Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission Executive Director Steve Marks tendered his resignation to Governor Tina Kotek on Monday following weeks of accusations Marks had leveraged his position to acquire rare bottles of whiskey before the general public, the Associated Press reports.
Oregon is one of the states where the retail packaged liquor industry is completely nationalized, there are no privately-owned wine and spirit stores, and Marks and his pals were accused of diverting a shipment of a particular label costing thousands of dollars a bottle to a store outside the state capital of Salem. The now-former liquor czar claimed he and his minions paid for the bottles and used them only for gifts and personal consumption. Regardless, the attorney general is opening an investigation and at the very least they violated an ethics law which prohibits state officials from leveraging any sort of insider knowledge for personal gain.