Three Wall St. Millionaires Win $254 Million Lottery (not a joke)

[Ad Orientem]

The lottery is full of rags-to-riches tales. Now, the 1 percent has its own feel-good story.

Timothy C. Davidson, Brandon E. Lacoff and Gregory H. Skidmore, three executives at Belpointe Asset Management, an investment firm based in affluent Greenwich, Conn., have won $254.2 million in the Powerball game, the largest jackpot in the state’s history.

“The lottery is all about dreaming, and that runs across all demographics and all people,”? said Anne Noble, the Connecticut lottery’s chief executive.

The three men made — or rather, multiplied — their fortunes with a single $1 ticket purchased at a gas station in nearby Stamford, a Connecticut lottery spokeswoman said. Mr. Davidson bought the ticket on Nov. 1, using the Pick 6 option to allow the lottery’s computer to choose random numbers. The winning digits: 12, 14, 34, 39, 46 and the Powerball number, 36.

The following day, when the results were announced, the co-workers realized that they had won a lottery with odds — 1 in 195,249,054, to be specific — that would make even the boldest hedge fund manager run for the hills. But they had a brief scare after a local news station mistakenly ran the winning numbers with a changed digit.

Later, the station corrected the error, and they began planning to collect their millions. The trio formed a vehicle, the Putnam Avenue Family Trust, to handle the winnings, and decided to take a lump payment of $151.7 million rather than receive the prize in installments.

Despite paying a $48 million tax bill, the men are expected to take home more than $100 million, a large sum even by the standards of Greenwich, a millionaire-studded suburb that is home to legions of hedge fund managers and Wall Street executives.

Read the rest here... http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/ ... hp#preview

[Storm]

Wow, lucky guys.  I live about 40 minutes drive from Greenwich, and the city is pretty insane compared to the normal world.  Lotus, Ferrari, and other exotic car dealerships abound.  Restaurants, and most other shops cost 3-4x the price you would pay just a 5 minute drive away, yet they always seem to be busy and full of customers.

I can't complain too much because the financial industry in this area keeps salaries high for everyone.  Even those of us not working in finance.  How exactly does this work?  (you might ask)

Well, when I was negotiating my generous salary with a healthcare company, I simply told them I could go work at a bank in NYC and make X, while being entitled to a very generous bonus structure.  Would they kindly match that salary?  And they did.

So, while I'm definitely part of the 99%, the 1% brings wealth and prosperity to the entire tri-state region.  I can't complain too much, otherwise I'd probably be making half my salary in flyover country...

[smurff]

It seems those guys might not have won the lottery after all:
http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=15047703

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wealth-manager ... tVXD0qrf6k

(Sorry I put the mobile version of this page up before.  The last one is easier to read.)

[Jan Van]

Darn. I though it was quite funny...

As we say, "De duivel schijt altijd op de grootste hoop"

[Tortoise]

Not sure why the media outlets are making such a big deal out of this. According to the Connecticut Lottery's own web site, this kind of situation is not unprecedented:

CAN WINNERS REMAIN ANONYMOUS?

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. The Lottery routinely issues winner stories and posts those stories on this website.

Source: http://www.ctlottery.org/Content/winner_publicity.aspx

Bottom line: It appears that a CT Lottery winner is allowed to remain anonymous by claiming the prize using a trust or business partnership.