Georgia Thompson was found guilty of 2 federal felonies of misapplication of funds and participation in a scheme to defraud the state of the right to honest services.

Thompson was a purchasing division supervisor who was part of a team of state employees who reviewed bids for a three-year state travel contract. The selection process has more recently been referred to as “Travelgate.”

The $750,000 travel contract was pushed to Adelman Travel by Thompson. She says she followed proper procedure in the process of awarding the contract, and was not pressured to push the contract toward Adelman. However, Omega World Travel had the best scores, and Thompson decided that there should be a “best and final offer” bid process in spite of this.

Committe members believe that there was outside pressure on Thomspon to push the contract toward Adelman. Thompson inflated Adleman’s scores in the contract selection process, and did so “to cause political advantage for her supervisors” and increase her job security, according to the indictment.

Adelman’s executives were big contributors to Governor Jim Doyle’s campaign fund.