When you are dreaming about winning the lottery. Take a minute to also dream about maintaining your good fortune. Lottery winners are easy prey because con artist will say " It's not like you earned it!"

That is why it is important to vet more than one Attorney,  financial advisor etc, both parties are to blame here. His naivete, and their brazen attitude.
Sue them and learn a lesson from this Ogawa. You don't marry the first person you kiss dum $$ s.

They say always have two lawyers and two accountants that way one can keep an eye on the other

From what I just read about Mr. Ogawa(google his name) he does not seem to be an honest man himself. Seems he was to share his winnings with two friends

I'll be my own advisor

Not sharing his lottery winnings with his friends doesn't make him dishonest.  I suspect friends and families of lottery winners always expect to share their winnings even if they never contributed a penny toward the cost of their winning ticket.

 Best advice ever

A young, unmarried grocery store worker, with no children, won half of a $336 million Mega Millions jackpot and did just that: bought a $100 million life insurance policy. 

When you intend to do something that you have no know-how and are too lazy to learn then tragedy is what you get. Personally I would have bought municipal bonds from a thriving state such as Florida. They are tax free too. 

 9/27/2013.

AAA RATED

When you win the lottery, you have a lot of work to do before you can rest easy.

The guy's a dunce, and he got taken. It was too bad he didn't get better advice from outside the first firm. He failed to do his homework. As to his supposed to be sharing... karma karma karma.

For that kind of win: 1 large legal firm specializing in high value clients, 1 wealth management firm, 1 CPA firm specializing in high value clients, and 1 local legal firm to watch them all. Kinda like Lord of the Rings.  And don't necessarily go with the firms recommended by the others. Do your homework.

What I read Ogawa did not buy the ticket one of the friends did he bought 3 tickets and distributed one to each member. Also after he won he had the friends sign a purported release agreement. The agreement states there was an agreement to share the Lottery jackpot, but only provides that the friends will receive $1 million(which one of the friends claims he has not received).

, Piaceri, I hope this winner will recover well. 

Anyhow, it's time for this big jackpot winner to buy a high-speed home Internet connection, a laptop computer, and start searching at least 1 hour per day for things he thinks he understands AND doesn't understand (BEFORE SIGNING AND INITIALING ANYTHING).

Should have been alarming:  More than a $300K life insurance policy for a solo guy with only a mother in 50s?  Plus, expensive real estate purchases in a 6-year high defaulting/foreclosures-trend, mainly 6-year price depreciating trend market state, really [one should only buy when quarterly foreclosure lawsuits are very low PLUS the existing short sales and foreclosures/REOs inventory is almost non-existent]?  One would think his banks/credit unions would have heard of his big win and offered him a 4.5% APR for a few 15-year CDs or something, geez!

If you must go to a financial advisor, only go to a flat fee-based advisor/company, not one that sells products/policies or where they make a commission off of the sale...

I take back everything I have ever said about the lottery not being cursed.

There is obviously a curse. Seems only dumba$$es win. 

If you can take home $70 million AFTER taxes and end up tens of millions in debt 4 years later, you are a dumb_ _ _. There is no other way to put it. 

And these 'advisors' didn't even have to do any fancy accounting tricks or speak in legalese or use Wall Street terms that perhaps the regular Joe wouldn't understand. Didn't even have to forge his signature and pay off a notary. All they did was tell him to buy life insurance he didn't need and to buy properties he couldn't afford. And he did it.

Having an advisor does not preclude you from having common sense. Here's the world's smallest violin. Another idiot winner flat broke.

Was it GREED ??

They convinced Ogawa to buy four policies from four companies,

telling him he could "earn $50 million by the time he was 50 years old,"

Why would he need another $50million 

He won enough to be set for life, why invest in anything?

Had he taken the annuity, he could have reinvested $5-$7 millions badly every year and still been in good shape.  Maybe he should have invested in a bigger grocery store and left the rest in the bank.

Of course it was greed. Nothing else it could be. 

If he wanted to play around and invest, then he needed to learn about the things he was getting involved in and do research. Instead he wanted even more easy money. 

If you are worth $70M and someone is urging you to buy things you can't afford so that you have to borrow millions of dollars and be wiped out financially if the scheme fails, and you willingly comply, then you are too stupid and too greedy to kep that money. He had to believe he was going to get a huge return on those properties to have even bothered to take the risk, so his own greed blinded him to common sense and reality. I have no sympathy.

Maybe this is just another scam on his part to get out of paying the rightful share (1/3 each) to the two friends he screwed over once the ticket landed in his hand. If not a scam, then someone above is watching and exacted karma upon him for being a cheat and a fraudster.

It was worse than greed- how do you convince this person to take out more than half billion life insurance on himself unless they knew going in that he was not the brightest crayon in the box to begin with?
Who the heck NEEDS a $600 mil life insurance policy?  He got played bigtime, the old saying applies" A fool and his money are soon parted".

Wow, what a dummy

Oh Yeah- but Hats Off to Todd once again for dredging up these doozy's, first we have Wild Willie & now Mr Ogawa.
There are lessons to be learned here Folk just from these two- thing is: it ain't pretty.

Remind me not to hire insurance salesmen as my financial advisors and then follow their suggestions blindly.

I did a search of this guy and I found a single article about him frauding his two friends out of their share of the winnings. It kind of seems like karma got him.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/11/12/31794.htm

Todd is constantly dredging for stories to make LP interesting and worth coming to to get your lottery news.  Hopefully someday one of these stories will be about a LP member being the big winner.

Im not even understanding why he would want to invest in insurance policies...especially if they're on him and he has no wife or kids...Why not just set up a trust...or yo want to invest in something invest in precious metals, oil, stocks, bonds, etc. etc.

I just read the story of him screwing his co workers out the winnings. It seems that Kevin Ogawa is a very scummy person. I don't feel bad for him anymore. Now I just see this as Karma catching up to him.

Con man got conned. No big deal, it's all about greed.

Kevyn stood no chance to benefit from the insurance financially since he was not named as a beneficiaryof the trust that owned the policies."

What the heck!!! I don't understand either

I don't understand some of these big lottery winners who risk the majority of their millions dabbling in investments.

That is what greed will get you! Why bother to invest in something you know  nothing about when you have $70M in the bank?  I would never risk my entire net or pull any lines of credit if I had his millions, it would sit somewhere safe in the bank until I researched and felt confident and still it would only be put into low risk investments. Not some shady recommendaton by some SLICK talking sales person.

And what is the point of investing in self life insurance? lol he can't cash out if he's dead, maybe his financial planners were going to put a hit on him and collect. This whole story is shady and a what not to do if you win the lottery..lol

I don't know much about investing but I know I wouldn't be investing in life insurance on myself if I were him..lol I have always been skeptical of other people ''professionals'' telling me how to spend my money. I don't have a financial planner now so when I win I'll  just collect and kick back and live off my interest and avoid all the extras.

Kevyn got conned into buying life insurance policies which most likely were whole life policies. This is the absolute worst type of life insurance available as it is extremely expensive and the fees will eat up any gains the insurance company had gained on his behalf.

Term life is the only life insurance anyone with a family/dependents should even consider. This fool was single with no dependents, granted he has a mother so he could easily have supported her without the need of attaining any type of insurance.

He could have invested in low risk tax free muni bonds that would have paid him $2-3 million per year without being obligated to pay Uncle Sam anything.

$100 million dollar life insurance policy? LOL. Did you make this story up Todd?

Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses...

-Matthew 23: 14

I don't like lawyers much neither my ownself.

That's how I feel, esp. the parts about investing.  I'd rather sock my money away at 1% until I educated myself as to how to get a better return...and even then I'd leave a large enough portion in something safe so in case those riskier investments went belly up I would have enough money to last.

It only makes sense, and like u said, keep a portion incase something goes wrong. He paid all that money to financial planners for bad advice. If only he had common sense and not try to be such a greedy piggy, he wouldn't be in such a rut.

I wonder if these financial planners were legit?  It's funny that they are  financial planners, attorneys and insurance agents all in one..lol  That should have been enough of a redflag right there. They seen this lottery winner coming and the lottery winner just funded their business and retirement accounts..lol

When I bought my house, my real estate agent and her company kept recommending me to use one of their Home inspectors on their list but I refused. I don't want to deal with someone that is affiliated with my investment. I felt they would work against me just to get a deal done, though it may not have been the case, just hate the idea of it.

I sincerely Hope you win , so that the curse holds true as you state. The post certainly affirms your on your way to that status.

Most folks go to professionals because they are versed in their fields. 

We go to a doctor we go to lawyers and we go to banks ...

So many will even state that after they win they SHOULD see a financial advisor. What hypocrites to then rant how foolish he was to do so. He followed the advice of professionals...and he is now in litigation. good for him! 

Humans are a fickled bunch. 

I look forward to reading how his litgation unfolds. 

Its a known fact that even the riches of folks Supervise over their own financial affairs. Never sign a document you dont understand....which on a side note is good advice when wanting to get married :)

 I can do a better job of messing up my winnings --- LOL!! 

70 Million after Taxes, why are you invested and borrowing money?  Even in this enviorment of low intrest rates he should be able to pull close to a million a year just off interest without going into principal.  That Lottery owner needs to take responsibiltiy for his own actions he signed the contracts.

It's not what he asked to do but what the financial advisers told him to do. He could have taken the same free advice we see right here on LP, "hire a team of financial advisers and lawyers before validating your ticket". On face value it sounds like good advice providing the jackpot winner finds a financial adviser that will act in the best interests of their clients. 

"Why not just set up a trust...or yo want to invest in something invest in precious metals, oil, stocks, bonds, etc. etc."

It's possible that is exactly what he wanted, but the financial advisers suggested a "better investment". Not many people have $70 million to invest and probably only a handful of people who know how to make sound investments with that amount of money. It's really no different than the long lists of Hollywood celebrities and athletes who lost or where swindled out of millions.

You can invest in all the things you mentioned with less than a $1000 for a small commission. However the advice on which "metals, oil, stock, bonds, etc. etc." will cost you extra.

"Most folks go to professionals because they are versed in their fields."

True but any client still needs to do their due diligence prior to hiring any professional. There are many in all fields that lack any integrity and that is who this particular lottery winner hired.

I know many Financial planners/advisers and not a single one would have recommended a whole life insurance policy. What makes this even worse is that this clueless individual didn't have any family/children or siblings with the exception of his mother.

This guy Kevyn  should have interviewed several different attorneys and financial planners not some scrupulous insurance salesmen. 

I hope the judicial system sides with him and hopefully he can recover a fraction of what he lost. 

Either he's incredibly dumb or very greedy. Or both.  But that doesn't let the so-called "advisors" of his off the hook either. Clearly they are sleaze-bags who took advantage of him. 

But yeah, to take on millions in debt when you've got that much money is crazy. I don't know how they managed to word that advice to make it sound like a good deal. Debt would be something I would not take on, even if I had only 10% of what he had.

True Pita- but ttech10 posted this above, and it got me thinking- How did Ogawa fall for his " Financial Advisors" spin yet was able to con his friends into letting him walk away with $70 million?

It appears his dumb in some things but somewhat " bright" in others.

Another reason why lottery winners should remain anonymous.

Keep that way of thinking.

If you are stupid enough to not read contracts, not look into the advice you are given and the people giving them and then want to blame others for your own stupidity, look elsewhere for sympathy. You aren't getting any from me. And any moron who thinks he's deserving of a pat on the back after losing $97 million in four years is a DUMB_ _ _. 

You want to throw him a benefit. Be my guest. Sounds like the two of you would end up in the same pity party. Pity party of 2.

He had $70 million dollars and thought it made sense to go into debt so he could scheme his way into even more money. This was stupidity mixed in with a whole lotta greed and you want to get all pissy because I refuse to feel sorry for someone like that. That's like saying I should feel sorry for Jack Whitakker getting robbed when he left thousands of dollars in cash in his unlocked truck in front of a strip club. Twice. NOT HAPPENING. You do something stupid, live with the consequences. I'll save my sympathy for non-morons.

lol! Yeah, sneaky smart when it comes to ripping off his friends but dumb when it comes to knowing whether financial advice is good or not.  Now that I'm thinking it through more, sounds like greed is his overwhelming personality trait. It wasn't enough for him to con the full $70 million out of the win, but he wanted even more. The "advisors" could probably see that in him and knew they had an easy mark. Dazzle him with the promise of millions more and his brain would quit working.

There are some types of life insurance policies that can be used as investment accounts because they earn interest on part of your premium payments, and that interest rate is higher than regular checking or savings accounts. But the reason that most people don't bother to do it is because there are a lot of strings attached to it. Such as, you can only withdraw money from it after it's reached a maturation point, taxes may be attached to the withdrawals and not all the money paid into it can be recouped. Obviously some goes to admin fees and the policy itself.

Why some people do still take out these types of policies is because it forces them to keep putting money into it and limits what can be taken out and when. So in essence, it is forcing them to save and not spend. But if you have an emergency and you need to get to those funds you may not be able to, or not without incurring hefty penalty fees.

If you're a person that has trouble saving AND you were already going to get life insurance, it really is a great option to have. IF you're planning on having a life insurance policy any way, then this is the one to get.

But it was never set up to be a substitute for other forms of savings accounts or CD's or trust funds. I have never in my life heard of someone using it like this. A $100 MILLION policy???? For what possible reason? Large scale greed. Plus these policies aren't hard to read. Had he read it, he would have known the drawbacks of doing this had he even bothered. I'll save my pity for someone more deserving.

Killer Line....

" Dazzle him with the promise of millions more and his brain would quit working."

These crooked lawyers would have eventually killed him. He should thank God, that he found out, before they finally execute the last chapter of their masterplan. I bet that the $100M, would have ended up somehow, in a trust controlled by these "masterminds". They probably walk away with a slap on the wrist.

lol

i hope that story isnt about me.

was just thinking,  70 mill would be $1 mill a year for 70 years. even if you kept it all under your mattress!

lol My thoughts exactly! This is why I don't understand why this guy would think he needs a $600 million life insurance policy? or any life insurance policy for that matter. lol

I could live like very lavish on $70 million without ever collecting another dime or investing or purchasing life insurance and still have plenty of money left over when I expire...d*mn fools.

"If you can take home $70 million AFTER taxes and end up tens of millions in debt 4 years later, you are a dumb_ _ _."

If you think that having $27 million in debt means this guy is broke you're the dumb_ _ _. There's nothing in the story about how much of his principal he spent, but since he borrowed the money to buy the real estate and he doesn't seem to be complaining about anything else except for $2 milion he spent for life insurance it's a fairly safe bet that he has the majority of the principal and recently acquired assets that may or may not be worth more than he borrowed to acquire them.  It's also worth noting that he seems to be claiming that the bad advice was to borrow money, not the advice to buy the properties. For all we know the properties he bought could be worth millions more than he paid for them. Having $27 milion in debt on properties that are worth $30 or $35 million and are appreciating isn't a bad thing. In fact, it's how people like Donald trump make a billion dollars.

All we really know is that a guy who is accused of defrauding his friends out of $46 million is claiming that he got bad advice and therefore deserves to be paid. It tells us absolutely nothing we can actualy rely on.

If I cleared $70 million my primary goal would be making sure it didn't lose value by putting it in conservative, but safe, investments. Some people would prefer to use it to make as much money as they could, and that might be this guy's plan. If that is his plan, borrowing money to buy real estate may be a very good strategy. Any increase in the value of the real estate will offset the interest on the mortgage, and it leaves most of the principal for other investments. If any of the property produces income, that also offsets the cost of borrowing the money. Somewhere down the road he could own the properties free and clear, they could be worth 2 or 3 times what he bought them for, and most of the costs may have been paid by tenants.

Even if he only bought property for his personal use it could still make sense to borrow most of the purchase price. If he took out a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 4.5% he'll still be paying that same rate 10 and 20 years from now. If he currently has  the principal he didn't have to spend invested at 2.5% he may be able to move it into a better investment in a few years. Based on historical rates, there's a fair chance that for a good bit of a 30 year mortgage that principal could be earning significantly more than the 4.5% he has to pay on the mortgage. History also suggests that in 15 or 20 years the real estate will be worth far more than he paid.

Can you explain the tortured logic that makes you think that this guy's claims of getting bad advice from the people he hired is "another reason why lottery winners should remain anonymous"?

Hahahahahaha. Yeah. That makes soooooo much sense. 

Let's see what you're trying to claim here: Property he bought but him in debt. The property he bought might have appreciated in value but he's still suing them for urging him to take out the loan. Uh huh. 

HAD he made money on the property, he could pay off the loan and he would have absolutely no reason to be suing for bad advice. Debt would be gone and he'd have a profit. No debt PLUS additional return on investment, WOW. Such horrible advice. How dare they make him money. Puh-lease. Even a dumb_ _ _ wouldn't need to sue in that event. 

No one sues for bad financial advice if they made money from that advice. DUH. 

If he made money from that advice he wouldn't be in debt. DUH.

The fee based financial advisors are really trying their very best to disparage those that are compensated a percentage of assets under management and commission.  Everyone actually needs services of a financial planner or advisor, but how many middle income families can pony up $1,000 or $2,000 for a financial plan? When I win the big jackpot that I fully know the odds are I may never win, I will continue to invest with same brokerage firm I have done so for past decade. Also, for those who are as gullible as this gentleman, you should know that LIFE INSURANCE is NEVER an investment! If you want guaranteed rate of return or safety net from market gyrations, the ideal product for you may be an ANNUITY. Life insurance is designed to provide income for your surviving beneficiaries AFTER your death. Annuities are designed to provide income for you (and another annuitant as well as beneficiaries, if so designed) while you are living.

LIFE INSURANCE is NEVER an INVESTMENT. One can use it for estate tax planning purposes as well as to provide income for surviving beneficiaries AFTER ones death. An appropriate INVESTMENT for people seeking guaranteed rate of return or safety net from market declines are either a FIXED INDEX ANNUITY or VARIABLE ANNUITY. 

Only a life insurance agent more interested in his payday instead of the best interest of the client would recommend cash value life durance as an investment.

The only person that life insurance could have been an investment had it existed then was JESUS CHRIST, since He died and rose again! Now if your name happens to be Jesus Christo Rivera/Gonzalez/ Martinez/Garcia/Guetierrez, please do not think for a moment that life insurance would be a suitable investment for you.

Dude had it made!! No wife, no children (not saying a wife and children/a family are bad), it was

just him, he didn't have to worry about a divorce or support of any kind and he STILL blew it!!

He did not need another $50 million!!

again, you are on your way! "think" about it before writing another diatribe of dribble.

Well, what I do know is that I will never be stupid enough to do what this idiot did and then turn around and blame others for said stupidity. You on the other hand have appparently more than a fighting chance. Be sure to buy them tickets.

As I clearly said, if you have trouble saving AND you already planned on getting a life insurance policy then this is the way to go. It is not to be used as a substitute to anything. I made sure to bold and highlight and put in caps the 'AND' so that no one gets confused. Could I possibly have been any clearer?

The job of an insurance agent is to sell policies to their clients. That's how they make their money. I'll give this guy the benefit of the doubt and assume he wasn't aware that agents' incomes are dependent on commissions on policies sold, but so what? He was smart enough to get his friends to sign contracts to weasel them out of their share of the JP, he should have been smart enough to read the policy to learn their limitations. But he had greed clouding his brain it seems like. He had $70M and thought he could make an additional $50M more in a few years time. Shouldn't common sense alone have stopped him long enough for him to think that if that were possible everyone would have those policies and all of us would be rich?

The middle class would be lining up in droves to hand over their paychecks to every insurance agent they could find. Who would even bother to invest in the stock market?

Ain't that the truth. No college fund for kids or grandkids. No siblings to take care of. No wife to split it with. no friends to help out since he screwed them out of the money. So the only person he had to worry about was his mother. And in 4 years managed to be in debt to the tune of $27 million dollars. 4 years. 

He could have spent half of that on anything he wanted, invest the other half and live off the interest ALONE for the rest of  his life and still be in the lap of luxury. Greed, greed, stupidity and more greed.

NBA Players, NFL Players, and big lottery winners ect. ect. ect.  The media love these stories because they get to make fun of the fickleness of the common man. 

Cheers

If they sold him the insurance policy as an investment, than that's dumb, but that still doesn't mean that getting whole life is in and of itself a bad strategy.  My father secured a whole life policy on my when I was born.  The payment is almost nothing because they are spread over an assumed lifetime, and it has grown in value.  Soon, the interest will make the payment on it's own, or it will continue to gain value. Either way, it can never be taken away.

Now, with this idiot who won, you don't need any insurance.  Like most people here have figured out, 70 million dollars IS your insurance. You could put it in the bonds at 4.5% interest, tax free. That is 3,150,000 per year, and NEVER touching the principal.

I'll go a step further and assume you could go blow 2-3 million right off the top.  Then, let's assume that the best bond you find at the time only gives you 2%. Okay, at 67 million left, that still nets you 1,340,000 per year, and STILL never touching the principal.

I understand that most people might not know what to do with that kind of money, but you would think that some common sense would kick at some point, right?

If this is the case, other lottery winners might have doubt in seeking professional help. It's quite unfortunate that he hired attorneys who are after what they can get out of the deal rather than considering the benefit of their client. I guess it is better to find a credible attorney or someone you can really trust with your life and your money.

"two financial advisors, who were also attorneys and insurance agents."

Really?  Nothing about that seemed the least bit suspicious?  Financial advisors who were also attorneys and insurance agents.  I would have high tailed it out of that office with the quickness.

  One stop shopping is not always the way to go.....

Insurance is a financial product, so it would not be unusual for a financial advisor to be an insurance agent as well.

It is less common for financial advisors to be attorneys though, but some tax attorneys also do financial consulting.

Wait a minute...

Two lawyers he hired to help him got together and ripped him off?

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

I refuse to believe it!

This has never happened before! (Well, actually, it was happening routinely 2 thousand years ago according to the Bible.)

Now where was I?...

Oh yeah... Lawyers stole his money? 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I can't believe it!!!