by Christine Zhu, NC Newsline
November 12, 2026
A lobbyist and former top North Carolina lawmaker is facing criminal charges from a Wake County grand jury stemming from an April 2024 bourbon tour for North Carolina lawmakers in Kentucky.
The indictment, handed down earlier this week, charges former state Rep. Jason Saine, a Republican from Lincoln County, with felony embezzlement of more than $100,000 and obtaining property by false pretense. He was also charged with aiding and abetting the same acts by the group’s executive director, David Coble, who was indicted as well this week.
Get the free newsletter 100,000+ North Carolinians trust. Sign up for the free Cardinal & Pine email here.
“I do not understand why I have been charged in this case,” Saine said in a statement. “The indictment claims that I ‘aided and abetted’ a crime committed by someone else — I did not do that.”
Saine declined to provide further comment, but said in the statement, “I did not commit any crime and I look forward to clearing my name.”
The junket was arranged and funded by Greater Carolina, a 501(c)4 advocacy group connected to Saine and founded by a former Saine staffer. It’s sometimes referred to as a dark money group because it doesn’t publicly disclose its donors.
Greater Carolina described itself as a nonprofit conservative social welfare organization aiming to promote pro-business and free-market policies in North Carolina. The group no longer has an online presence.
Federal tax law allows for 501(c)4 social welfare groups to lobby for legislation, but they cannot intervene in political campaigns or have political activities as their primary purpose.
The Kentucky trip gained attention across the Tar Heel State after a Louisville-area hospitality worker made an anonymous social media post saying the group had booked a private bourbon tasting, but was already inebriated when they arrived.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said the charges come from an ongoing multi-year investigation into Greater Carolina.
“From the beginning, the focus of this investigation has been to determine what, if any, laws were violated in the operation of this organization,” Freeman said in a statement. “This case serves as a reminder that the law places restrictions on the way they operate and sets forth that they should not be used as an end run around the statutory framework embodied in our state’s Ethics Act and lobbying regulations.”
Freeman said when her term ends, the case will transition to District Attorney-elect Wiley Nickel.
Earlier this year, four prominent North Carolina lobbyists were also indicted on criminal charges related to the 2024 trip. They each faced a misdemeanor charge of solicitation to commit violations of the offense of giving gifts by lobbyists and lobbying principals.
Three of those four lobbyists had their cases cleared in September, while pending charges remain against the fourth, Kevin Wilkinson of The Southern Group.
The indictment against Wilkinson claimed Greater Carolina paid for the trip “with the intent that an ultimate beneficiary of those contributions would be legislators.”
At the time of the Kentucky trip, Saine was a top state budget writer in the North Carolina House. He resigned from the legislature in August 2024, joining The Southern Group lobbying firm.
Saine now leads his own firm, Saine Strategies.
NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Laura Leslie for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.
