REVIEW OF FILES SHOW ABC ALLOWED PERMIT TO BE ISSUED ILLEGALLY AND OTHER SHENANIGANS - PART I

If you are a minority or a foreign-born American, you more than likely will get screwed by the ABC Board.  If you are white and connected, you have no worries.

A recent series of Freedom of Information requests prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the ABC does not apply its own rules and regulations in a fair and consistent manner.

The files involved the father-in law (Edward Wright) and wife (Kristen Wright Saffa) of a friend of tainted ABC Enforcement Director Boyce Hamlet, Carlton Saffa, an employee of Governor Asa Hutchinson.

The story starts with a fraudulent application to the ABC for a permit back in 2011 by Lisa J. Wright, the second wife of Edward M. Wright.

Lisa Wright filed an application with the ABC for a permit to operate a liquor store in Arkadelphia.

Lisa Wright falsely indicated that she 'lived' at 1105 Lakeshore Drive in Hot Springs with hubby Ed when they actually lived at 41 Vigne Boulevard, Little Rock.

The Lakeshore address is the vacation home of the Wright's that does not even have a mailbox for the delivery of mail. Even a letter the ABC sent to Lisa Wright at her lakehouse was undeliverable, not because no one was home, but because since it was a vacation home it had no mailbox for the Post Office to leave a notice of a certified letter.

Why did the Wight's file a false application?  To obtain a permit that they would not otherwise have been able to obtain.
  
ABC regulations require that a permit holder reside within 35 miles from the permit location.

The home that both Lisa and Ed Wright lived in at 41 Vigne Blvd. in Little Rock since 2007 was over 67 miles from 1210 N. 10th St. in Arkadelphia, where they wanted to open a liquor store.

THE WRIGHT"S PURCHASED THE LR HOME IN 2007 AND HAVE CLAIMED A HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION SINCE THAT TIME INDICATING IT IS THEIR PRIMARY AND PERMANENT RESIDENCE

So the Wright's used their vacation home address as their residence as it was only 31 miles from the address of the liquor store. 

Documentary evidence submitted in the permit application should have raised questions/suspicions by the ABC. 

One rather obvious clue was when Lisa slipped up when she attended the required ABC seminar and put down her Little Rock residence. Either she or the ABC tried to mark it out.

The real estate sales contract for the Arkadelphia site should have been red flag for the ABC.  It lists the Wright's address as a post office box in Little Rock. The document appears to have been poorly altered to omit the Wright's Little Rock address (by white-out or correction fluid).

NOTICE THE BLANK SPACE JUST BEFORE THE P.O.BOX ADDRESS AND THE MISSING PORTION OF THE LINE UNDER THE "M"

If the Wright's actually resided in the Hot Springs home, why not use that address on the contract like they did on their ABC paperwork?  Oh, that house doesn't have a mailbox. Okay, so they must have a post office box in Hot Springs them to get their mail.  Nope, but they do have one in Little Rock.  That's normal right? Live in one town but get your mail in another an hour away. Bullshit.

THE WRIGHT RESIDENCE IN A GATED CHENAL NEIGHBORHOOD

We did a little checking and found that both Ed and Lisa were registered to vote in Little Rock and still are.  Lisa did change her voting registration to Garland County for a year.  When was that? Well, it was in 2011. And it was quickly changed back to Pulaski County. Wasn't that when they filed for a permit? Yep.

The Little Rock post office box is associated with several business ventures that Ed was/is involved in. And why not. He lives in Little Rock and works in Little Rock.

 
In fact, he listed his where he actually resided on his filing with the Arkansas Secretary of State concerning the Arkadelphia location.  Another huge red flag missed or ignored by the ABC (a copy of the actual document was in the ABC files provided to us so they have no excuse).

If the Hot Springs home was their actual residence, why not use that address or a P.O. Box in Hot Springs to receive your mail?  We know why... because the Hot Springs home was a vacation residence and the Wright's day-to-day home was in Little Rock.



The Wright's sold their vacation home in Hot Springs in August 2015.

The mailing address on file when the Wright's owned the home in Hot Springs was the post office box in Little Rock. 

And if Lisa, the ABC permit holder, actually changed her residence, she never notified the ABC. That's another violation.  A double violation actually.  Remember, the permit holder can't live more than 35 miles from the licensed site.

In fact, Lisa Wright continued to use her old vacation home address even after she and Ed sold the home. 

We have a hard time understanding why Lisa and Ed kept lying to the ABC after they had obtained a permit, albeit illegally, when they could have changed the permit holder to the everyday manager of the Arkadelphia store and made things somewhat legit.

Shortly after Lisa Wright renewed her permit, which she was not legally entitled to hold due to her living outside the permitted distance from the permit location, her husband "sold" his part of the Arkadelphia store to  Ronald Wright (brother?). 

 And Lisa requested her permit be transferred to Ronald.

 There is much more to this saga which will be continued in Part II.