Meg Scott Phipps

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Meg Scott Phipps was the Commissioner of Agriculture for the state of North Carolina from 2001 to 2003. She is the daughter of former North Carolina governor Bob Scott and granddaughter of former US Senator and North Carolina Governor W. Kerr Scott. Phipps is a 1978 graduate of Wake Forest University and a 1981 graduate of the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University.

A Democrat, she was elected to the position of Agriculture Commissioner in November of 2000. Controversy erupted less than a month into her term of office when she selected a new midway vendor for the North Carolina State Fair, replacing a longtime vendor, who filed suit against the state. In May of 2001, allegations emerged of inappropriate use of campaign funds from her 2000 campaign.

After two campaign aides were indicted and one pled guilty to federal fraud and extortion charges, North Carolina governor Mike Easley asked Phipps to resign her position, a position she held fast to through a month of additional investigations. Following Easley's request for Phipps resignation, she finally resigned her position on 6 June 2003 and was replaced by interim commissioner Britt Cobb.

In October 2003, Phipps was tried and was found guilty in state court on perjury and obstruction of justice charges; soon afterwards, she pleaded guilty to 5 of the original 30 federal charges against her, including fraud, conspiracy, and witness tampering. In March 2004, she was sentenced to four years in federal prison and is serving her sentence at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia.