Iowa authorities to investigate NY lawyer Crawford Shaw surrounding unclaimed $14million winning lottery jackpot

A lawyer claiming to represent someone who won $14million in the Iowa lottery jackpot said earlier this morning that his client will forfeit the money.

Attorney Crawford Shaw said his client has opted to abandon all claims to the money after Iowa lottery official questioned suspicious circumstance surrounding the owner.

Lottery officials said that the winning ticket, which was purchased in December 2010 at a Des Moines convenience store, went unclaimed for nearly a year before Shaw brought it to them less than two hours before it was to expire.

Shaw, a New York City attorney, had signed the ticket on behalf of a company called Hexham Investments Trust; however, the name of the company was misspelled on the ticket.

Although lottery officials were able to confirm that the lottery ticket was legitimate, they were concerned about the misspelling of the company’s name and refused to make any payout until someone at Hexham came forward.

Shaw still tried to collect the money saying that his client was willing to donate more than $7million-after taxes- to Iowa charities, but lottery officials still refused to release the money.

The state lottery had given Shaw until today to clear up all misunderstandings about the rightful owner, but earlier today the lawyer notified lottery officials that his client was now living in Belize and had decided not to collect the money.

Shaw also claims that he doesn’t know the identity of the actual person who is behind the Hexham Investments Trust, which is based in Belize, a country in Central America with a population of 330,000 people.

According to the Associated Press, Shaw was once “associated with criminal proceedings and bankruptcy filing in New York and Delaware.”

According to the article, Shaw was the CEO of Industrial Enterprises of America Inc., a bankrupt public company that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said was looted in a $100 million securities fraud scam.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the attorney general’s office issued a joint statement this morning saying they have opened an investigation into the lottery case.