BOSTON (AP) — The State Ethics Commission has fined a former technology company salesman $35,000 for giving a Massachusetts transportation official more than $142,000 at the same time his company was trying to win two state contracts worth more than $2.4 million.

The commission said former CBE Holdings salesman John Dunnet admitted violating the state's conflict of interest law.

The commission said the payments occurred during lunches between Dunnet and the department's information technology director, who has since died.

The commission said Dunnet wrote separate checks from his personal checking account on 32 occasions between October 2006 and December 2007.

The agreement signed by the commission and Dunnet states neither CBE Holdings nor the transportation department was aware of the payments.

A spokeswoman for the transportation department called the payments an "isolated incident."