This has been a horrible day, first making a big deal about Riley Cooper on the Eagles calendar for black history muff, then then some woman gets knocked up a few times gets millions,a Puertrican also wins and I have been on hold with this insurance bs for 2 hours and then got hung up by some homegirl for bad language because she was too damn incompetent to do her job. Good news is, going out with a redhead tonight that doesn't kiss on the 1st date. geeze, what are you 15. I told her I have never had a second date where something wasn't done on the 1st date. Let that one marinate in her red headed brain.
http://www.patriotledger.com/article/20140927/News/140926995
More big Lottery winners using trusts to stay anonymous
<sum class="entry-summary" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">The Lottery say it's perfectly legal for publicity-shy jackpot winners to claim their prizes through trusts, but critics say it allows them to skirt regulations designed to ensure transparency about who is taking home millions.
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Posted Sep. 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM
More big Lottery winners using trusts to stay anonymous
<sum class="entry-summary" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">The Lottery say it's perfectly legal for publicity-shy jackpot winners to claim their prizes through trusts, but critics say it allows them to skirt regulations designed to ensure transparency about who is taking home millions.
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The BWE Nominee Trust of Marblehead, represented by trustees Andrew G. Christensen and Stephen J. Farrar, claimed the first $15 million grand prize in the Massachusetts State Lottery's $30 "World Class Millions" instant game on July 29, 2014. Christansen is a lawyer and Farrar is an accountant. The trust's name stands for "Best Week Ever." (Mass. Lottery)
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Posted Sep. 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM
When the time came to claim the largest jackpot ever on a Massachusetts scratch ticket, it wasn’t the person who bought the ticket who showed up for the $15 million prize.
Instead, the two smiling men holding an oversized check and scratch ticket in the photo taken in July at Lottery headquarters in Braintree are a lawyer and an accountant. The actual winner’s name was not disclosed to the public or even to Lottery officials.
That’s because the winner, or winners, formed a legal trust to claim the prize – the largest ever in an instant win game. It’s a practice that’s been around for years but has taken off this year as a growing number of winners seek to keep their newfound wealth a secret.
The Lottery says it’s perfectly legal, but critics say it allows winners to skirt regulations designed to ensure transparency about who is taking home millions.
Of the 104 Lottery jackpots of $1 million or more awarded since March 31, trusts claimed nine prizes totaling $26.4 million before taxes. That’s more than any year since at least 2001, according to a list of winners on the Lottery website. Last year, no prizes were claimed by trusts.
“This year has been an aberration thus far,” Lottery spokesman Christian Teja said. “Typically people are choosing not to have a spotlight on them and trying to maintain a level of privacy, and it is completely within the legal boundaries.”
But the practice gets around the requirement that winners’ names and hometowns be public in order to create confidence that the games are being run fairly or aren’t going to Lottery employees who are barred from playing, critics say.
Both candidates running for state treasurer – the office that oversees the Lottery – say winners’ names ought to be public.
“People play the Lottery, not trusts,” Republican Mike Heffernan said. “We should always err on the side of more disclosure. When people play the Lottery, they realize it’s going to be a public event if they win.”
Democratic candidate Deb Goldberg also thinks winners’ names should always be public, campaign spokesman Jon Ostrowsky said in an email.
“In the interest of full transparency, Deb believes that the identities of Lottery prize winners, even if they choose to set up a trust, should be posted online,” he said.
When an individual claims a prize, their names, hometowns and photographs are released media organizations and posted online.
When a trust claims a prize, the only names that must be provided to the Lottery are those of the trustee, who is often a lawyer, and the trust itself. Some trusts are named for a specific person, but others give no hint of the winners’ identity. In the case of the $15 million scratch ticket prize announced in July, the trust was named the BWE Trust, an acronym for “best week ever,” according to the Lottery website.
Page 2 of 2 - Some winners may form trusts to ensure their winnings are passed on to their family members if the winner dies or for other legal purposes, said Braintree Mayor Joseph Sullivan, who was head of the state Lottery from 2003 to 2007. But others may be trying to hide something, including unpaid child support payments that can be taken out of their prize.
“There may be an avoidance issue where for whatever reason you don’t want the winnings in your specific name,” Sullivan said. “That probably needs to be delved into a little deeper.”
Last week, Quincy real estate agent Uncle Sam Rounseville was having an open house when someone he knows showed up with a $1 million lottery ticket he had just bought.
He referred him to his friend David Spillane, an attorney with offices in Quincy and Hanover who has served as a trustee for several lottery winners.
Spillane set up a trust for the man and claimed the prize on his behalf.
There are also plenty of legitimate reasons a Lottery winner would choose to keep a low profile, Spillane said.
“People are afraid others are going to find out they have had a windfall and are going to start hitting them up for money,” Spillane said.
Safety is another concern that’s often cited in debates around the country about how much anonymity lottery winners should be able to have.
A Florida woman was convicted in 2012 of murdering a man she befriended after he won a $30 million Lottery prize several years earlier.
Still, whether or not state Lottery winners should be able to remain anonymous is something that needs more scrutiny, said state Sen. Robert Hedlund, R-Weymouth.
“It’s something the Lottery has to take a look at without a doubt,” he said. “If not the Lottery, I’m sure the Legislature will.”
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