Lottery jackpot mystery abounds

Iowa City, Iowa— Criminal investigators looking into the suspicious circumstances behind a now-withdrawn claim for a $14.3 million Iowa Lottery jackpot will have numerous layers of complexity to unravel, stretching from a wealthy New York suburb to Central America, observers said Friday.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said it was examining whether a crime was committed related to the purchase and presentation of the Hot Lotto ticket. But Dave Button, who leads the agency's gaming bureau, acknowledged investigators may have no way to compel the man who may have the answers — a 76-year-old New York lawyer — to give them up.

Crawford Shaw of Bedford, N.Y., withdrew his claim for the jackpot Thursday after refusing for weeks to tell the Lottery the identity of the person who bought the ticket and anyone else who possessed it before he did. He said he didn't know the ticket owner, who wished to remain anonymous. After the Lottery rejected his lawyers' last-minute offer to give the money away to charity, he withdrew the claim "to avoid further controversy."

Rather than end the story, the move marked the beginning of a criminal investigation led by DCI and the Iowa attorney general's office.

"Good luck to whoever is trying to nail this down," said Tom Curran, a New York lawyer who represents Industrial Enterprises of America. The company is suing Shaw, who served as its CEO from 2004 to 2005, before it was looted and driven into bankruptcy.

After the jackpot went unclaimed for a year, Shaw's lawyers shocked Lottery officials when they showed up two hours before the Dec. 29 deadline with the winning ticket in hand. Security checks showed the ticket was valid. Shaw signed it on behalf of Hexham Investments Trust (misspelling Hexham as Hexam), which listed its address as a post office box in Bedford, N.Y., a wealthy enclave where Shaw lives on the property of his daughter and son-in-law Gregory Fleming, the president of Morgan Stanley Investment Management.