For three men who had apparently just won $254 million they looked far from ecstatic.
And last night the three wealthy bankers who came forward to claim a record Powerball jackpot were facing claims that they were not in fact the real winners.
An anonymous man — one of their clients — is said to have actually purchased the ticket but came to the trio to avoid the 'hassle' of his name becoming public.
They then allegedly set up a trust 'as a front' so that Tim Davidson, Brandon Lacoff, and Greg Skidmore could be the public face of the win.
In a further twist, it was also claimed that rather than donate a large proportion of the money to charity, the winner has requested that the majority just be invested for his personal gain.
The explosive claims blow apart the fairytale story that Davidson bought the ticket at a gas station in Greenwich Connecticut for $1.
It would also explain the bankers' sheepish performance at a press conference to collect their 'jackpot', during which they refused to discuss their relationship with each other.
It had been suggested that Davidson bought his ticket on November 1 and the following day they realised their numbers had come up, beating odds of 195,249,054 to one.
The jackpot was the largest ever won in Connecticut and the 12th biggest in Powerball history.
It means they will take the after-tax lump sum of nearly $104 million in cash between them.
Now, according to a family friend who has known Lacoff since he was a boy, the truth behind what happened is very different.
Tom Gladstone said that a client at investment company Belpointe LLC, which was founded by Lacoff and provides investment advice, much of it to wealthy individuals, was the real winner.
He, Davidson, and Skidmore then set up the Putnam Avenue Family Trust which will allow the man to keep out of the spotlight.
Gladstone, a real estate agent who rents Lacoff the Belpointe office space, said: "The person who really won it is anonymous.
"They set up the trust so that Brandon and his two partners could claim they won it and that the real winner wouldn't get hassled.
"They have said they are going to give it to charity but they are going to manage the money. They are going to make a donation but they keeping a large proportion of the money and they are going to manage it.
"The winner is a client of theirs and their clients are a mixture of larger and smaller investors. By Wall St standards they are not big players.
"They set up the trust as a front to ensure their client anonymity. It clearly took them some time to work it out as they won on November 1, realised the next day and have only now come forward.
"I saw Brandon last Friday and he didn't say a word to me. They are smart, rich Greenwich men."
Gladstone added that he had known Lacoff's father Marty, an anti-trust lawyer, for 30 years and that the family were 'hard working people'.
He said, "Brandon is a good kid, I don't know how else to describe him. Obviously the client is putting their faith in him to look after this very substantial amount."
According to the story which has been told so far, Davidson bought the $1 quick pick ticket for the November 2 drawing at the Shippan Point BP gas station in Stamford. It was the only ticket he bought.
During the press conference he and his two colleagues sat stoically at a conference table sipping bottled water as Jason Kurland, the group's attorney, answered questions but declined to address basic issues about the win.
Kurland said, "Obviously, everybody is extremely excited. These numbers are huge. This is going to benefit many people.
"From the first conversation I had with them, it was very philanthropic.Charities was definitely, probably No. 1 on their priority list."
As they were leaving the news conference, Skidmore stopped at the microphone to identify himself and his partners and said, '"And it feels good," before leaving the room.
The winning numbers were 12-14-34-39-46, Powerball 36.
Lottery officials had used billboards across the state to urge the ticket holder to come forward as the weeks went by without a winner.
Kurland said the group called him the day after the draw.
Kurland said, "They thought they were the winners, and then, that night, I think, one of the local TV stations had the numbers, and the Powerball number was wrong on the TV screen, so that put them into a little bit of a tizzy.
"But the news, to their credit, corrected it a few hours later, and they were confident they had it."
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Belpointe manages $82 million which makes it a boutique investment firm by the standards of many New York finance houses.
Lacoff was an accountant for Ernst & Young before founding an investment company known Belray capital, which became Belpointe LLC.
He "owns a number of properties and businesses throughout the region," according to the Belpointe website.
Skidmore, the company's president and chief investment officer, formerly worked as an investment banker for a subsidiary of AXA Financial Services and Citigroup.
He is a former member of the U.S. sailing team who was once an Olympic hopeful, according to the company's website.
He is also the grandson of Louis Skidmore, the notable American architect and founder of the firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, which created the Sears Tower in Chicago amongst other buildings.
Davidson started his career at a French bank where he worked in foreign exchange before moving on to advise companies, hedge funds and "ultra high worth" individuals.
When Lacoff's mansion was contacted in Greenwich, a woman answered the phone and said, "He's not in. He is not taking calls at the moment. Bye."
i even posted a thing in "many what if threads" on lottery post about such a event , before it even happened
the thread was don't trust lottery winner press conference ,
https://www.lotterypost.com/thread/236325/2218953
"funny thing, i had my idea's on this one,
like name my trust, mexican investments inc trust, or whatever
hire some decent stand in, who lips are sealed"acter"
who is a mexican, ofc he be a husky guy wearing a sombrero hat, giant sun glass's, and a fake santa bread.
and do the press conference acting as if he sole winner
, where the lawyer telling media plz don't ask who the winner is, i let winner tell you hes story thro:
stand in comes on stand, hitting key story telling points.
saying he wish's to keep hes identy a serect for him self and, due to where hes extended family lives in mexico where kidnaping is high rate. and he don't want to put their lifes at risk
"media guilt to stay out of hes life" epic win!
and give them a classic hes a mexican who mom came to american for american dream. to support her boy/ family, and how he promise's to take care of all hes relatives back home in mexico and buy hes mom ever thing she dreams of'
while me and my laywer 2 weeks later
am in hes office having a meeting about investments, we are Laughing our butts off about how easy it is to trick everyone.
ofc, i be moving into a new area where all the rich people live and hang out, , and no one wiser as am not a mexican. and no one put new rich white guy+ lottery winner in same thinking at same time.
all part of cover to not only hide who i am form public, but to trick them so they never have a Clue
So i agree, don't trust lottery winner press conference,"
they just replaced my mexicon cover story, with wealth managers being the decoy role. genius none the less, the fact am seeing this play out in real life, when i dreamed of such trickery, rofl.
i was fooled for first 24 hours. not many more am not,! i did find it bit odd, i blow it off they was just freinds that 1 ticket got spit 3 ways.
now with close friend claiming other wise, it does make sense.....
i was thinking why they take more then 2 weeks, losing bank interest, now i know, it was to make sure their real winner/cilent was hidden, by trying to pulla fast one over us
the fact is, the real winner is hidden in that trust, that trust could pay to a 2nd trust, where real winner is , we public will Never know, long as they keep it hidden.
this is using trust the right way, they just added whole decoy element to try to fool everyone. LOL
they are wealth managers for rich people, now they have their richest cilent ever, they would glady do all this stuff, you have a cilent thats 2x the net worth of all your old cilents, you will glady work your ass off . as what is taking place is their efforts to help winner never be know, take the fall them self's LOL
What a hoot this one turned out to be - smart move by Mr. Anonymous. So the Belpointe Group weren't the real winners - who cares - they now have over $100 million to manage for the real winner. It is what it is folks - I say more power to them
From Connecticut Lottery Website:
Certain information regarding our winners is published and made available. The Lottery will publish and upon request, make available a winner's name, city or town of residence, date and amount of win and the name/location of the retailer that sold the winning ticket. A winner's home or street address and phone number are not published and will not be disclosed unless required by law.
While most winners claim prizes using their individual names, periodically, winners do come forward using other legal entities (i.e., trusts, business partnership) to claim their prizes. In those instances, the Lottery will promote the win using that legal entity's name.
Publicizing that "real people" really win is important in maintaining the public's trust in our games.
From the beginning I thought this was a fishy story about the winners, etc.. I found it odd that 3 people would buy just one ticket. Usually people buy a few tickets. With a bit of humor, their total investment would have been 33 1/3 cents apiece. I wonder how they made that 1 penny into thirds?
According to Good Morning America, a source close to one of the 3 men is saying that the 3 men are not the real winners and they are covering up for the real winner which IS ILLEGAL.
This source also says that the winner has no intention of donating money to charity.
Here's my opinion folks, It's the Lottery's fault. With such a huge amount of cash involved, anonymity is essential for safety and people wouldn't have to come up with such elaborate schemes to claim their prize.
This is too funny....
I don't think there's anything illegal about it whatsoever. Maybe you could ellaborate on what law was broken?
Whether or not someone decides to donate some of their money is their own personal choice. It does not make a person "good" or "bad" to donate money (or not). It is a voluntary act, as it should be.
I did not say it was Illegal. I don't se how it is. BUT GMA is reporting that is Illegal. I have GMA on now and if they repeat the story I'll pay closer attention as why it is illegal.
Oh yeah, I agree with you, whether money is donated to charity or not is irrelevant. I'm just reporting what the GMA story said.
OK, I thought when you said "...they are covering up for the real winner which IS ILLEGAL" that you were saying it is illegal.
I'm not sure what grounds GMA would have to say that claiming a jackpot for another person is illegal. It's been done hundreds, maybe thousands, of times, in order to get around the lotteries' insistence that winners be made public.
Yeah, it does sound kinda fishy that 3 guys split a $1.00 dollar QP.
My question is; how did they decide amongst themselves which one of 'em wuz gonna have to pony up the extra penny?
The whole thing is super-smart if ya ask me. Merry Christmas now baby!
GMA has no grounds. todd is right.
am sure its classic, assumption is mother of all f-ups
some dumb reporter,
the fact is trust, claimed, its Only winner to public face
the trust claimed, their was no law broken, lawyer acts as winner , claiming for trust, NO laws was ever broken.
The Three Musketeers, showed up to fool us, as they are managing real winners money, they can be said in a legal way to be fall guys.
the 3 wealth asset managers"The Three Musketeers" , met real winner, who said, i want you guys to handle my investments for me, o btw, i also want my name kept hidden, they bring in their best lawyer pal to help out with trust paperwork.
trusts are made, plans are setup, and almust 1 month later, here they are, showing up in a very large stretch limo , fooling everyone"for first few hours"
the fact is, once money in a trust, their many ways to send the money to other trusts, the lottery them self's don't have access to anything but frist trust
only irs knows who real winner is besides the layyer and assest manager. rofl.
these guys are handleing the money, todd is right also, when he says ,this trick has been done Many times before, its just now the lawyers,assest managers are trying it.
they had me fooled first 24 hours. , so good for them , am happy someone tryed it out,
thro putting the decoy names out their, for close freinds to rat them out, is why, i had my decoy, also not want hes name out their" so no reporting could be done to uncover the fact hes my fall guy"
hey that extra penny is now worth $1.04 million dollars.
Good for the real winner. Very smart.
IMHO, GMA put that spin on the story to appeal to people who don't like to see a rich person win the lottery. When I heard the word "illegal" I went straight to CT website and the answer was right there for all to see. Nothing illegal about it
I'm sure GMA has enough interns on staff who could have done the same thing.
Now if the winner had been that garbage man or the 21 year old kid who claimed they lost the ticket, I'm pretty sure GMA would have done a feel good story on how great it is to see a regular person win the lottery.
Who gives a SH*T about who won or cashed in this fu*king ticket!!!!!
Fact: The DA*N ticket has finally been cashed in!!
Reality: Move on the the next drawing and move on with your lives.
I am so tired of the media making a big hoopla about this fricking ticket!!
Be honest, Do you REALLY care about who won?
I'm just thrilled that the ticket has been cashed and the jackpot won't be "rolled back into the system".
GOOD GRAVY, give it a rest.
If anything, start fraudulent claims charges against the knuckleheads that "claimed" to have lost the winning ticket.
Is there so little going on in this pathetic world that the media have to run stories like this?
After all, as stated in previous posts, thousands of people have used a hired mouth piece or dummy front to cash in jackpot tickets.
Sometimes the American media makes me wonder about how brain damaged they really are.
Congrats to the winners.
Oh no ........... investment for personal gain ........................ how shocking!
If it weren't for the Greed of Envy Crowd like "Occupy", you wouldn't have to worry about coming forward !!!
I think they should have told the truth. Just tell us you represent the winner. Big deal.
Many have formed trusts - we understand that's to protect the identity of the winners. They succeeded in bringing more scrutiny to the win and raising questions about their integrity.
Time for PA to get our 1st Mega Millions win.
I will just hide after I claim the jackpot!
Welp, that would answer my question as to why they formed a trust but still showed for the press conference. Can't blame the winner at all for the ruse.
Asset managers accused of fronting for real $254M Powerball winner
Otherwise known as "sending in a beard."
Looks like these guys and the winner formed their own Jackpot Winner Protectin Program.
I say good for them.
I think it's smart to keep your identity private. It's also smart to create an entity to manage the money.
I don't see a story here - it looks like the lottery officials and the journalist took the low road.
I liked the story when it was about 3 people paying 33.333 cents a piece to split a QP ticket instead.
Yeh, who cares but it did prove a point that there something wrong with this story, it wasn't adding up!
Good Enough!
I will do the same when my ticket come in , but i will give to worthy causes.
the best thing about this is that rdgrnnr was wrong in his assessment yesterday. the know it all from the appalachians actually believed these frauds.
Yeh, rdgrnr did fall for it hook ,line and pole.
He made the wrong assessment because he automatically took the opposite view of mine. I first announced the 3 investment advisers were probably acting as a front and rdgrnr disagreed immediately never wanting to appear to agree with me.
Well, normally that logic is flawless.
I think this was a good idea.....................some people with families don't want to be in the spotlight and have media people and people off the street knocking on their doors to do interviews or begging for money. Some people also like to live a humble lifestyle even after a big win.......................
I think setting up a trust and letting businessmen claim it is a good idea
IMHO, the theory of these 3 guys fronting for the real winner is very plausible.
I'm curious as to wether or not the real winner initially approached them (as professional money managers) to manage his newly gained wealth for him/her, and did they subsequently float the idea to the real winner for them pose as the winners?
Because it took approximately one month for them to surface, I don't believe these three professional money managers didn't discuss amongst themselves, the subject of them having their lawyer state only one of them purchased a one dollar QP ticket, and that it wouldn't be questioned.
Looking at it a different way, they're money pro's. What money pro would form a "loosey-goosey" undocumented everyday/ordinary workplace lottery pool (that's typically formed by people who aren't professional money handlers), and only have a total of one dollar in the pool? C'mon Man!
Asset managers accused of fronting for real $254M Powerball winner
Regardless of whether the winner was poor or rich before winning this jackpot, it was wise to get a lawyer and a money management team to front of him/her to make the claim. He/She has avoided what Jack Whittaker of West Virgina went through when he claimed his PB jackpot in person with his family.
Right you are!
"DON'T HATE THE PLAYERS, HATE THE GAME!"
Smart move on their part. Now they don't have to worry about all the sob stories and people begging for money.
It did seem unusual that an asset firm that won twice as much money in a lottery win than their workplace possesses would give most of that money away. I mean they could've used that money to increase their business tenfold and then have enough money to get really charitable. But then what do I know about how money works? It makes sense now but I fear that taking back their original plans to donate the money to charities is going to come back and bite them. The majority of the public will not take that news well. Some might end up suing the firm and demand the lottery winner give the money to charity as originally promised. It kinda sucks but one should never say they're going to give that money to charity and then take it back. Things are going to get ugly.
atleast the lost ticket mystery has been solved,good luck to the REAL winner
Some might end up suing the firm and demand the lottery winner give the money to charity as originally promised.
I don't recall anyone but the lawyer saying anything, the three money managers or their client didn't say anything. Besides, what charity would they sue for except themselves?
Why is this being spun as a negative thing? I know a girl who won $3 million in the NJ lottery and she was hounded so much by people wanting her to buy products and services that she was sorry she won.
Why is a winner sometimes expected to give money to charity? It's bad enough he/she has to give plenty to the charities called the U.S.Government and the State of Connecticutt. Are the charities willing to reimburse him for all the lottery tickets he/she bought over the years to finally win? I bet no one offered to give he/she money to play the lottery, but now that he/she is a winner, everyone would have had their hands out for a piece of the pie, but this winner is too smart for that!
Congrats!
There's one of those for almost any jackpot that goes a week without being claimed.
I agree the theory of them fronting for the real winner is probably what happened, but, here's a scenario where they could have formed an impromptu pool: maybe they just pulled up to get gas, went in to get a drink or smokes or something, saw a lottery sign promoting how big the jackpot was, joked they should go in together to buy some tickets, but since they don't usually carry cash because they use their debit/credit cards for everything since it's much easier to track and receipt things, between them they only had less than $2 in change so they could only buy 1 ticket, since it was an impulse buy, they didn't think anything more about it until the next day when they heard someone won.
I agree with you!
There's not stopping beggars and people looking for handouts from hounding the money managers for money but they might look as silly as a person trying to make a redraw from a bank in which they have no account.