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Are Wealth Managers Lying About Winning $254 Million Powerball Lottery?

Jen Chung

Published Nov 29, 2011

Modified Nov 29, 2011

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Jen Chung

Published Nov 29, 2011

Modified Nov 29, 2011

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Yesterday, Powerball lottery players found out that the lucky winner of the $254 million drawing on November 2 turned out to be three wealth managers from Greenwich, Connecticut. Greg Skidmore, Brandon Lacoff and Tim Davidson opted to take a $104 million lump sum payout (the giant check was made out to the Putnam Avenue Family Trust), which is $22 million more than the total client money they manage at Belpointe Asset Management. Their lawyer did most of the talking for them at the press conference, giving few details... which opened the door for an alleged family friend of Lacoff's to tell the Daily Mail that the trio are fronting for a client who actually won the jackpot.

The Daily Mail reports, "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," hence the trust, "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." Interesting! We've contacted the Connecticut Lottery to find out if there are rules about who accepts the prize—in NY State, one Megamillions winner tried to stay as mysterious as possible but still needed to make a public appearance for his $55 million prize—but Tom Gladstone insists to the Daily Mail:

‘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’.

Anyway, the wealth managers say that Davidson bought one $1 ticket at a BP gas station in Stamford, CT (the station will get a $100,000 prize). Connecticut Lottery Corp. chairman Frank Farricker told the Wall Street Journal that he did a "double take" when learning who the winners were, but "While the stereotype may be a poor guy down on his luck who wins, the facts of the matter is: Everyone is equal when they play. These guys, they played one buck."

Tagged

connecticut

greenwich

powerball

state lottery

wealth manager

Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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