The Spectacle investigation has also snarled plans for Terre Haute to become the state’s first new community to get a casino since 2008. Ratcliff has denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged by federal authorities in the campaign financing case. State officials have also alleged that Ratcliff continued exerting control over Spectacle in violation of state orders, wrongly funneled nearly $1 million in casino company money into his own horse race wagering account and made improper job offers to government lobbyists. The gaming commission has said Ratcliff was involved in that scheme, citing an email from a Ratcliff employee and his electronic calendar about an April 2015 meeting at Indianapolis International Airport with a Virginia political consultant who was sentenced last year on federal fraud charges.
