A small clarification:
The statement by the Davis Brown law firm said, "The purchaser has chosen to remain anonymous. The identity of the purchaser has not been disclosed to Shaw."
Shaw didn't actually say this. He sent the ticket to a Des Moines law firm with instructions for them to claim the prize on behalf of the trust. Davis Brown is the local law firm.
But, this is one of the things that I find curious: that the trustee doesn't know who the beneficiary is. I'm not quite sure how one would do this: set up a trust with one trustee, and then have the first trustee appoint a second trustee -- without telling him who the beneficiary is?
I'm wondering if there's a typo in the statement. Maybe the last sentence was supposed to be: The identity of the purchaser has not been disclosed by Shaw?
I think it was indeed a misstatement or misquote. The article that you posted from ABC news says:
Lottery officials asked the attorneys and Shaw to explain how the ticket had ended up in his possession in New York. Shaw declined to provide the details, but said he did not know who purchased the ticket and that he could not identify his client, who had come to possess the ticket. He said he merely represented his client and the trust.
Note that he said that he could not identify his client. He didn't say that he didn't know the client. This is consistent with a trust: the trustee can't identify the beneficiary without permission. However, the information can be obtained with a court order.
They are funneling money to Belize.
Not illegal.
Just a red flag.
You can have a chain of multiple trusts.
If I won the lottery I would use at least two trusts.
Shaw misspelled the name of the trust on the lottery ticket.
So therefore, technically, it wasn’t signed for by the right owner.
Let’s say someone is laundering money. They have trust accounts in Russia, Belize, Switzerland and all with trusts.
Mobster Kingpin extorts the ticket. Innocent ticket holder and his family will be killed if he tells.
Mobster Kingpin uses one or more trusts to claim the ticket.
Shaw may not even know Mobster Kingpin is behind it.
You can have one trust to claim a ticket and then it can be handed over to another trust.
Given that one of Shaw’s connections set up a bank in Russia it would not surprise me if there aren’t some Russians involved somewhere with this.
I don’t know that we will ever know the story.