It's Don Beason.
Evidence in the sentencing hearing this morning of former House Speaker Jim Black identified Beason as the previously unidentified lobbyist who Black says loaned him $500,000 to help him complete a real estate transaction in Charlotte.
Beason could not immediately be reached for comment.
Looking at an enlarged version of a Wachovia Bank check from June 28, 2000, for $500,000, Black confirmed that it was one of two checks he received from Beason, one of the state's most influential lobbyists.
Update: Wade Smith, a Raleigh attorney who is representing Beason, said this afternoon that he has no comment on what was said in court today.
Update: Prosecutors asked Black if he asked his secretary to backdate a refund check to Beason to before the June 30 reporting deadline for campaign finance.
Read more after the jump.
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Black said he thought he discovered the inadvertent deposit while checking the campaign finance reports shortly before they were filed. But under questioning from Wake District Attorney Colon Willoughby he said his secretary might have told him about it.
Willoughby was skeptical that Black could have discovered the error in one day.
"What form would have been produced?" in a day, he asked.
Willoughby asked if Black discovered the deposit on July 12 or 13 and asked his secretary to backdate it.
Black said he would not have asked her to do that.
Update: Black said his second quarter campaign finance report for 2000 was incorrect.
The form included a $500,000 loan that was not made until mid-July, prosecutors charged.
Willoughby said Black had to go back and "reconstruct the transaction" in order to keep from revealing that he had received $500,000 from a lobbyist - something Willoughby said would have ended his leadership career.
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