$83M Mega Millions jackpot claimed in Georgia

Comment #23

dallascowboyfan — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 13:13:03 GMT

Congratulations to the winners......

Comment #22

MaximumMillions — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 10:35:15 GMT

Well, it'll still take hundreds of journalists to sift through, and really only high-profile people will get attention, politicians, athletes, CEOs, I don't recall any leaks about some random Billy Jones with an LLC somewhere in the Carribean.

Also, this info didn't come out with just FOIA requests or journalist effort, an internal informant had to leak it. At that point someone in the bank's backroom could just tip the press off to what a fat check you just cashed that somehow exactly mirro... [ More ]

Comment #21

Teddi — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 08:26:53 GMT

After what happened with the leaked Panama Papers, it's no longer as discrete as it used to be.

Comment #20

MaximumMillions — Fri, 27 Jan 2017 23:25:37 GMT

I agree this was poorly executed in her case.

All these people who use them for tax efficiency seem to get it right. Go to a larger organisation. While this source deals with tax evasion the business constructs at the base are valid llcs and corporation:

We also add a look in more detail at who the big intermediaries are and had surprising results too. Among the top 20 largest middlemen (by number of request for offshore entities creation), we found internationally known ban... [ More ]

Comment #19

Teddi — Fri, 27 Jan 2017 18:10:18 GMT

I think you misread what I wrote. She never claimed that SC didn't allow any of its winners to remain anonymous, she simply said that remaining anonymous if the winner is out of state meant first establishing a residency.

Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't. Or maybe laws changed since then. At the time I told her that it was a small price to pay to remain anonymous. Now I don't care that much. I'd very much like to remain anonymous, but if I can't, or someone digs up my identity, I don't much c... [ More ]

Comment #18

LottoYear — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 20:56:19 GMT

That is not true about South Carolina. When people say such things, ask them to name just one lottery winner that South Carolina would not let remain anonymous.

Trusts/LLCs are very complicated and not as anonymous as people would like to think. Also laws vary from state to state, so study up on them before even buying a ticket if that is the way you want to go. The author Ta-Nehisi Coates used an LLC to buy a New York City townhouse last year. The real estate press did a search and found ou... [ More ]

Comment #17

Todd — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 15:27:17 GMT

Two ways I can think of:

Contact the Georgia Lottery to find out. They should be able to tell you, either through just a regular e-mail query or, if that doesn't work, through an open records request. Check with the business registry in Georgia to find out the registered agent of the LLC mentioned in the article.

Comment #16

Teddi — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 15:12:12 GMT

Hey, Todd:

Is there any way to find out who they used as their financial advisor/lawyer? As a GA resident, my inquiring mind needs to know.

Comment #15

Teddi — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 15:08:02 GMT

They'll never step back because they don't care. Considering paparazzi were still chasing celebs after Princess Di's death, kidnappings, home invasions and murders of publicized lottery winners make for a good story so there's no incentive for them to care about a winner's safety.

Sugarloaf Pkwy is a busy road. I used to pass by that building every single day. It's asking for trouble. They should have used a PO Box. I've often thought of playing in SC, but a SC poster once told me that I'd h... [ More ]

Comment #14

KY Floyd — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 06:36:14 GMT

its actually feasible for the Mega Million to change rules

Of course it is. They came up with an initial set of rules and they've been changed several times, but those rules are mostly about the nature of the game itself and leave other things to the individual states. There's little reason that any state should care about how another state administers things, but they certainly wouldn't want other states to control how they do things. I think that makes the chances of a rule change about an... [ More ]

Comment #13

Stack47 — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 05:44:48 GMT

Currently the jackpot prize is distributed by the state selling the winning ticket so even though it's multi-state, the state lottery rules apply.

Comment #12

Stack47 — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 05:33:51 GMT

Hire a lawyer and have them call the lottery to verify their client has the winning ticket and the ticket will be validated when the winner has their affairs in order. You're over-thinking verifying a jackpot winning ticket when it's just simply helping a jackpot winner.

Comment #11

cbr$ — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 22:48:17 GMT

Congratulation to this group of winners. Some one give them great advice.

They can stay anonymous.

Comment #10

kandi49 — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 20:36:56 GMT

congrats to the winner that is nice retirement sent from heaven

Comment #9

ressuccess — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 04:11:48 GMT

I didn't know that the jackpot was revised upward.

Comment #8

LottoYear — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 02:15:57 GMT

How does the process of verifying and remaining anonymous work? Do you walk into lottery headquarters, ask to verify the ticket, refuse your name, take back the ticket and leave?

In California as soon as there is a major win, lottery officials seize surveillance footage from the store where the ticket was purchased. In 2012, California lottery released the photo of a couple that they thought had won a $52 million jackpot a month earlier, because Bladimir and Marita Agnite of Fremont had kept

Comment #7

rmoore87 — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 02:02:59 GMT

Smart move.

Comment #6

ckrakowski — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 01:57:03 GMT

I think that if a state has a law that says lottery winners can not remain anonymous to claim prizes they should not be able to make LLCs to claim the prize and skirt the law.

Comment #5

LottoYear — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 01:44:20 GMT

After Georgia lottery winner Craigory Burch, Jr. was murdered in 2016 for his winnings of $434,000, you would think that the media would have stepped back a little. It wasn't necessary to identify the Duluth address of the LLC.

Players in the South can always buy tickets in South Carolina if they would like to remain anonymous. You can play up to 20 consecutive draws.

Comment #4

TheGameGrl — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 01:21:00 GMT

I would agree on theory. Technically since its a MULTI STATE game its actually feasible for the Mega Million to change rules and make it that the participating states agree to anonymity or full disclosure. I tend to find transparency to be key amongst adults and systems.

Comment #3

Stack47 — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 01:17:35 GMT

I always wondered why the lotteries don't suggest that winners verify they have the winning ticket. This would prevent a search for the winner that usually happens when a few weeks go by without the jackpot being claimed and give the winner the time necessary to do their thing before validating the ticket.

Each state lottery has their own rules which can't be changed by the rules in other states.

Comment #2

notmyday — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 00:50:10 GMT

Seems they went threw some searching to find out who it was by letting everyone know where it is .lol

Comment #1

Raven62 — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 00:48:07 GMT

Maybe Legal Minds can Help Other People in Other States Claim Their Jackpots Anonymously.

$83M Mega Millions jackpot claimed in Georgia

Lottery Post — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 00:22:28 GMT

Winners' identities cloaked by legal entity

By Todd Northrop

It took some time, but the winners of an $83 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot have stepped up and claimed their prize using a legal framework to avoid revealing their identities.

In November, the Mega Millions lottery announced that a winning ticket had been bought from Georgia. To be exact, the ticket was purchased from the White Water Chevron at 334 Cobb Parkway in Marietta.

Two months later, the winners have come fo... [ More ]