OHIO LOTTERY CLAIM ANONYMOUSLY
I have had the good fortune to represent several million dollar lottery winner.
The winners chose to remain anonymous so I make contact with the Ohio Lottery Commission to make it happen. Once the winner confirmed the winning numbers the tickets were signed, and dated by the winner on the back of the ticket, and stored for safe keeping. The procedure from there was a little cumbersome. I need to create two separate trusts. One trust is to appoint me, as the trustee on behalf of the winner, to contact the Lottery Commission and accept the Lottery winnings. The secondary trust was set up for me as trustee of the first trust, to transfer the proceeds to the second trust with the lottery winner as the beneficiary. This enables me to present the ticket, accept the proceeds, and transfer it to the winner with no public record or disclosure.
In addition to coordinating these trusts with the Lottery Commission, I also need to prepare confidential disclosures of the winner and relevant tax information. The Lottery Commission never lets the money out the door without the appropriate tax information. In addition to tax information, a search is done by the Lottery Commission to determine if the winner is delinquent in any child or spousal support proceedings.
Once all that is completed I am required to personally present all the paperwork, and the winning ticket, to the Lottery Commission office in Cleveland. To preserve the anonymity, my winners do not go to Cleveland with me. In order to gain access to the Lottery Commission personal identification needs to be shown, you need to sign the register, and all transactions are video recorded - the exact opposite of anonymous.
Once in the office I present them with the paperwork and the winning ticket. The next cloak and dagger event comes into play where the winner signs the ticket. When I present the ticket to the Lottery Commission they first verify the authenticity of the ticket. Then I am handed a bottle of white out. I am instructed to completely white out the winner’s signature. I am then required to endorse the ticket with my signature as Trustee. Lastly, I execute an affidavit indicating I am the one who actually blotted out the signature with white out. When that is done I then leave, only without the money.
The Lottery Commission sends me the winnings to my office after about 2 weeks. That’s when I start my banking procedures eventually transferring the winnings to my clients.