Unprecidented move by lottery may include criminal investigation
Includes video report
By Todd Northrop
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa Lottery officials have set a 3 p.m. Friday deadline for the mystery winner of a multi-million dollar Hot Lotto jackpot to reveal themselves or their claim on the prize will be denied.
Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich talks about the Friday deadline for an unclaimed Hot Lotto jackpot during a press conference Monday afternoon. (Rodney White/The Register)
The mysterious winner or winners remain hidden behind Hexam Investments Trust represented by 76-year-old Crawford Shaw, an attorney from Bedford, N.Y.
The ticket, worth as much as $14.2 million, was sold Dec. 23, 2010, at a northeast Des Moines convenience store. The winning numbers hit six days later, but the jackpot went unclaimed for nearly a year.
Des Moines attorneys representing Shaw and the trust showed up at lottery headquarters less than 2 hours before the ticket was to expire last month.
Shaw met for about 90 minutes with Iowa Lottery officials last week but did not disclose the person or persons behind the trust.
Lottery officials sent a letter to the trust's lawyer who signed the ticket, Crawford Shaw, saying "To recommend payment of this jackpot, the security division of the lottery needs to have the following information:
"1. A timeline containing the name of the individuals who was in the Quick Trip on Northeast 14th Street in Des Moines, Iowa, purchasing the ticket and the names of all subsequent individuals who have either owned or possessed the Hot Lotto ticket that was purchased on December 23, 2010 and contained the winning jackpot numbers for the Hot Lotto drawing held on December 29, 2010."
"2. The birthdates, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of these people. We request you provide us with the information by 3:00 p.m. CST on this Friday, January 26, 2012. You may mail the information to the lottery at 23232 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50312, fax or e-mail the documents so long as they are received at the lottery on or before this Friday ... at 3:00 p.m. CST."
"This is the first time the lottery has experienced a situation like this in its 26-year history, and we will continue to work, understanding that the security and integrity of the Iowa Lottery and its games cannot be compromised," Lottery CEO Terry Rich said.
Investigators also said they are considering whether to launch a criminal probe in the case.
Lottery officials said the Division of Criminal Investigation's gaming bureau and Iowa Attorney General's Office are assisting in the investigation.
Eric Tabor of the Iowa Attorney General's Office told local media that the AG's role in the Hot Lotto investigation is to give advice on the law. The DCI plans to review information related to the winning Hot Lotto ticket and ask, "has there been a crime committed or a crime attempted to be committed?"
Iowa law requires a person sign for the winnings and their address be disclosed. The winner does not have to make a statement or public appearance.
Trust's lawyer has checkered past
Rich said Shaw's history, which includes lawsuits alleging fraud in Delaware and Texas, could be unrelated to the Iowa lottery ticket, but investigators were looking into it.
Records show Shaw played at least a minor role in the collapse of Industrial Enterprises of America, a chemical company that was looted and bankrupted in 2009 by a stock manipulation scheme. Shaw helped found the company after taking control of a Houston-based shell corporation, serving as its CEO from 2004 to 2005.
Shaw told investors the company's stock was "grossly undervalued" in 2005 and promised revenue was skyrocketing, corporate filings show. But he abruptly stepped down in October 2005, and was replaced by the company's chief financial officer, John Mazzuto.
Mazzuto pleaded guilty last year to grand larceny and other charges for plundering the company. Prosecutors say he and another company executive, James Margulies, issued millions of shares of a type of stock that can legally be given only to employees as part of a benefit plan, and funneled the stock to themselves, relatives and associates. The stock was sold, and the money was channeled back to Mazzuto and Margulies. They improperly recorded it as revenue, which boosted the company's books, inflated its stock price and lured investors.
A lawsuit filed in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware alleges Shaw was compensated with $2.3 million worth of the improper shares and is seeking to recoup that money. Investors, which included an Ohio teachers' pension fund and the Methodist Church, lost more than $100 million when the company collapsed.
In 2009, Texas doctor Howard Nunn filed a lawsuit saying Shaw refused to issue him $25,000 worth of shares of Industrial Enterprises he bought in 2005. Shaw eventually agreed to refund his money but only paid back $5,000, the lawsuit claimed.
Shaw agreed to pay Nunn $25,000 last March to avoid trial, but records show he has since refused to satisfy the judgment or respond to questions about his financial assets after claiming he doesn't have enough to pay. A judge in September sanctioned him $750.
"He has made some representations to my client that he intends to pay the judgment. It's premised on something happening — we don't know what — and him suddenly having money to pay," said Nunn's lawyer, Ty Chapman. "I believe he told my client it didn't have anything to do with the Iowa Lottery deal."
Chapman said he tried to serve Shaw numerous times with court orders at the Bedford, N.Y., address where relatives say he lives and has been unsuccessful. Shaw gave Lottery investigators a Texas driver's license when he met with them last week, and Rich said the agency didn't know his whereabouts.
The questions about Shaw are no surprise to Florida interior designer Elizabeth Calomiris, Mazzuto's ex-wife. She said she knew Shaw when she was married to Mazzuto. After Shaw left Industrial Enterprises, she said Shaw begged her to give him damaging personal and business information she had on her ex-husband and came to her home to get it.
She said Shaw used the information as leverage to obtain a settlement in which he was paid the $2.3 million in company shares, and she now regrets helping him.
"Crawford Shaw, he's just as crooked as can be. I wouldn't trust anything that he's said," Calomiris said. "He lied to me a lot. He'll say anything to get what he wants."
The questions about Shaw are no surprise to Florida interior designer Elizabeth Calomiris, Mazzuto's ex-wife. She said she knew Shaw when she was married to Mazzuto. After Shaw left Industrial Enterprises, she said Shaw begged her to give him damaging personal and business information she had on her ex-husband and came to her home to get it.
She said Shaw used the information as leverage to obtain a settlement in which he was paid the $2.3 million in company shares, and she now regrets helping him.
"Crawford Shaw, he's just as crooked as can be. I wouldn't trust anything that he's said," Calomiris said. "He lied to me a lot. He'll say anything to get what he wants."
So, the ex-wife provides damaging info against her former husband and then disparages the character of the person she provided the info to.
INCREDIBLE! If it was my lawyer the guy would have been fired weeks ago. I have a feeling that he is hiding something or maybe he is the owner of the ticket and promised to cut some "friends" in on the loot if he was able to form a trust. He knew it would make news if he claimed the jackpot and any money that was owed would be seized. It's going to be interesting to see how this all turns out!
The person who bought that winning Iowa lottery ticket did not sign the back of that ticket.There should be a new rule in the state lotteries that would state on the back of winning tickets "All winning lottery tickets must be signed by the winner and address be stated ". They would still be eligible for a trust.Let's hope it turns out not to be another "Abraham Shakespeare" type story.
Maybe Mr Shaw is the owner or one of the owners of the ticket, but I wonder if it is a quick pick or not and how and or from who he got the ticket, I think that lottery winners have a right to privacy, but the state lottery also needs to know all of the info that they are asking for, but there should be a law that allows the state lottery to keep that info secret so that it is not made public as lottery winners should have a right to their privacy.
Something is a little fuzzy here 2. I think the ticket was stolen from its real winner.
I don't think it was a quick pick. If you look at the ticket at 0:58 in the video, it shows 2 lines, the first 3 are the same, and the hotball is the same. Also, neither of the lines have "QP" next to them. It's very possible this ticket was stolen and the thief waited until the last second to claim through a trust so that the real winner wouldn't be aware of what happened.
This is not going to end well for Shaw. This is 'fake/forgery/stolen' written ALL over it..
Ahhhhhh..........miss those old Monopoly games. I still have my get out of jail free card. Wonder if Shaw still has his.
waited until the last second to claim through a trust so that the real winner wouldn't be aware of what happened.
That last bit just doesn't make sense to me, though. I would think any person with a working brain would realize that someone turning a winning jackpot ticket in only hours before it expires (a YEAR after it won) would be noticed by quite a few media outlets. Of course we are talking about criminal minds here, so not usually the brightest.
I was under the assumption that even when you claimed via a trust that the lottery would take your information, just keep it private.
Correct. Stolen or not. It would have been kept private and nobody would be the wiser. There is still no advantage to waiting till the last minute though. At least I can't think of any reason.
Waiting to the last minute would draw the greatest attention and was a dumb move. The best way to reduce the attention would be to wait 2 or 3 months and claim the day after a really large jackpot winner came forward when all the media attention would be on the $200 million winner.
Also, if I am reading correctly, the lottery officials are claiming that the winner's name and city is required to be released by Iowa law. It does not matter if it is claimed by a trust. The name of the individual or indivduals and the city must be released. That is correct in some states, but wish it would be changed. We all see the dangers that arise with publicity.
After hearing they might not pay, you would think the real winner would show up. Makes me sick
to see it could go unclaimed.
To avoid media coverage, claiming the ticket during a big news event like the Super Bowl, Election night, or some major breaking news story that's ongoing would be the best thing. I've noticed lottery winners don't get too much coverage during times like those.
Or a situation like a few years ago where lottery computer techs figured out a way to print duplicate winning tickets that were identical to the originals, bypassing all security. In a situation like this, some person with top level access sees the time limit is about to expire on MILLIONS of dollars, the real winner hasn't shown, so why let all that money go to waste? They put their long-thought out plan into action. They print the ticket, form a trust with a shady out-of-state lawyer and tell him they CANNOT be identified -- or else they will go to jail.
The lawyer tries to collect the money. Hey 50/50 chance, right? IF they get the money, they go to the Caribbean for the rest of their life, disappearing from Iowa. :)
I hope the AG does do a criminal investigation and find out what's really going on here.
waiting until the last minute actually gets you MORE publicity. But necessary in case this is some duplicate ticket that was printed by a lottery tech insider. It happened before, it can happen again. Somebody probably hacked the lottery system code. They saw millions of dollars about to expire, and put their once-in-a-lifetime plan into action. They had to wait until the last minute in case the REAL winner found the ticket in a drawer somewhere.
Iowa Lottery Officials have stated that the winning $14.2 million ticket is bona fide as genuine.You would think the person who bought that winning lottery ticket would have signed it.The only person that did sign it was Crawford Shaw,an attorney for the trust.
in his quest to stay bypass the rules and stay completely anonynmous, the winner has had more press than 250 million dollar jackpot winners. He "only" won 14 million which is next to nothing in jackpot standards so its not like anyone would of cared. Its not even a national lottery so i don't know he needed to got to such great lengths to remain anonymous. And unless he found his ticket the day it was claimed, turning in the ticket 2 hours before its expiration was extremely stupid. I wonder what he wouldve done if hed gotten in a car accident or been pulled over or been stuck in traffick?
I may be in the minority here but I salute Iowa Lottery security. Sometimes integrity is all we have...
I have a new motto...if I can't win, then I hope the jackpot is spread out thin so as to not be a big deal. This situation is making me quite happy indeed. Of course, I am going to be a hypocrite when I say that when I win, I hope I am the sole jackpot winner!
over in this thread https://www.lotterypost.com/news/241644 is an example of someone who may well have been the original buyer of this ticket.
gotta say id rather the lotto officials make certain the correct person gets the money.
Maybe it's not the media attention they're concerned with. If the person claiming the prize isn't the rightful owner they shouldn't care if everyone on the planet knows somebody is claiming the prize, as long as the rightful owner doesn't realize it's their ticket. I can't imagine any scenario where waiting longer reduces the chance that the rightful owner won't reclaim their ticket.
Suppose it was a couple of weeks after the drawing and you noticed that the ticket on a somebody's refrigerator door was the winner and you took it. They might realize it's missing or they might not. If they realize a winning ticket is missing they're going to make an effort to find it. Initially that effort may be calm and quiet, but as the deadline starts getting close they're going to start getting much more concerned about finding it, and your chances of knowing they're looking go way up. Assuming you've got a lick of sense you're going to balance your desire to collect the money with your desire to stay out of jail. That means you would wait until you're as certain as you can be that they don't realize they had the winning ticket.
Again, if you've got some sense you would still consider that the rightful owner may be aware even if you were unaware of their efforts to find it. In that case you might instruct your lawyer not to reveal your name even if it means you won't collect the prize.
wow stealing a ticket off of someones fridge door? can you believe i never thought of that? am i naive or what?
tks for reminding me to keep tickets secure, and if i give as gifts to put the name of the recipient on it.
I wonder what everybody's aversion to signing tickets is all about.
It's really not very strenuous.
Press Complaints Commission - Lottery Guidance Note - Lottery Winners
Winners who opt for anonymity
Under the terms of the licence granted to the UK lottery organisers Camelot, winners are entitled to anonymity. If winners do opt for anonymity, the Commission would generally expect the press to respect this wish. To do otherwise may raise issues under the terms of Clause 3 of the Code, which relates to privacy. There may of course be exceptions to this if newspapers and magazines can demonstrate that it is in the public interest to identify an individual against their wishes, although the Commission has noted before that the size of the win alone would not be a sufficient reason for such identification. The Commission notes that in the 9 years since publication of the first guidance note it has not had to deal with any formal complaints about such identification: a welcome sign that editors have respected both the wishes of individuals and the Commission’s guidance. The press should also not seek to obtain information about winners who have requested anonymity from their family, friends or colleagues through any form of harassment contrary to Clause 4 of the Code.
Winners who opt for publicity
Other lottery winners choose to accept publicity. Having done so, they are still entitled to the protection of the Code of Practice: to expect that journalists will take care not to publish inaccurate material about them, will have respect for their private lives under the terms of Clause 3, and not harass them or their acquaintances in breach of Clause 4 of the Code. However, in assessing whether published material is intrusive under the terms of the Code, the Commission always considers the extent to which similar material has been placed into the public domain with the consent of the person concerned.
Vulnerable winners
By its nature the lottery will produce winners who are also vulnerable members of society: the very young, old, those who are unwell either physically or mentally, or those who have recently been bereaved. The Commission underlines that such people remain entitled to strong protection under the terms of the Code, regardless of whether or not they have won a large amount of money.
Pretty excited to see how this all turns out. My guess is no one will come forward. They are busted and they know it! They are probably already in the Caribbean!!
Welcome to Lottery Post, Urbangirlie, best of luck to ya!
Thank you! And BTW, you are one of my favorite posters
Your quick wit always gives me a good chuckle. I hope this will be a lucky year for me too! I have hit 3 numbers 6 times this year in Fantasy 5 (here in Cali) which is more than ever before so I am hopeful, well at least up until the end of the next drawing anyway, lol.
Good luck to you as well rdgrnr!
Well, thank ya kindly, Urbangirlie, I'm beholden to ya.
Hammer down on that Fantasy 5!
you know i been thinking abut this some.
the lottery officials shouldnt have given the lawyer guy and trust an extension at all. they should have said,
" you have 2 hours till this expires now! tell us who bought the ticket in 2 hours or its worthless :"
Maybe someone who lived in hoosier,. should sue the lotto company for giving an illegal extension without a court order. sure if lawyers wanted an extension to time limit, they had a whole year to apply.
tickets expire in a year remember
I am all for anonymity, but this guy gives me the creeps. There is something very fishy about him. This is why lotteries should offer players the choice of registering. It can prevent anxiety, the only people who loose are cheats and the lawyers.
Agreed.