Attorney Claims Powerball Jackpot for 82-year-old D.C. Winner

WJLA DC ^ | May 4, 2009

[RDTF]

WASHINGTON - The attorney for an 82-year-old southeast Washington man has claimed the $144 million Powerball lottery jackpot for his client.

David Wilmot, the attorney, said Monday he was accepting the money on behalf of Rockson LLC - a corporation created to protect the man's identity.

The winning ticket in the April 8 drawing came from the Giant grocery store on Alabama Avenue in southeast D.C.

The jackpot winner is a widower with 10 children and 47 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Wilmot says the man is taking the lump-sum payment of $79.6 million.

-snip-

[tubebender]

DADDY! I have looked all over for you...

[Frank_2001]

The gub’mint is the REAL “winner” here.../s

[balch3]

If they don’t all hate each other now, they will when it comes time to divide the estate.

[crazyhorse691]

the man is taking the lump-sum payment of $79.6 million.

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Party on like there is no tomorrow...there just might not be.

[abigailsmybaby]

Rats!! I’ve been playin’ the lottery as my retirement plan. I was countin’ on this one.

[Southack]

Just don’t be shocked later when we find out the the “old man” is politically connected (read: payolla)...

[skinkinthegrass]

Just in case...ya win...rem:Jim Rob / Freerepublic :)

How to avoid all of that mess, or to try to mitigate the impact?

1) There has to be some way to avoid being photographed with that large-sized paycheck the lottery officials will give you. It is also ridiculous for them to put the full total of the lottery jackpot since the net amount after the lump-sum option and taxes is much smaller.

2) Identity change? Sometimes it may be best to change that phone number or address to avoid the flood of spam calls that you will be getting.

3) Choose the annunity payout instead of lump-sum. This may seem reasonable if you want to give yourself a short-period salary instead of everything at once. It will give you a better deal of handling your funds.

4) If you do pick the lump-sum payout, put most of it in a trust fund and impose some sort of lockbox mechanism, and set some sort of withdrawal limit on yourself. Good for setting some sort of financial responsibility.

5) If you are married, a revised pre-nup or marriage contract to reflect the lottery winnings. In this time of age, love will not help you if you win the largest lottery jackpot in history.

6) Any friend that suddenly appeared out of the blue must undergo a background check.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Sounds like this guy got sound legal advice.

[VeniVidiVici]

SE D.C. is one step-up from Darfur.

[Fee]

I knew a guy who won a lottery ticket. First thing he was told to do was change his phone number, move and yank his kids out of school to private school. Reason was security. Your kids and wife can become targets for kidnapping and scam accident artists will show up at your home and try to sue you. Worst was the ones that showed up claiming that he needs money for his sick kid and goes ballistic at your door if you refuse. Then you have family and relatives to deal with. He did the right thing.

[rightwinggoth]

He did do the right thing. Hopefully the attorney charged him an ethical fee for it.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

His life just got real complicated.