Lawyer who claimed Iowa jackpot alleged to have ties to Delaware fraud

Erin Jordan, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa –

A New York attorney who presented an Iowa Lottery ticket worth more than $14 million is accused of defrauding an East Coast company.

Crawford Shaw, representing a trust called Hexam Investments, turned in the winning ticket Dec. 29, just hours before the deadline for collecting the jackpot.

Shaw, 76, of Bedford, N.Y., met Tuesday with Iowa Lottery officials, but would not say who bought the ticket or who the winner is, Spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said. Lottery officials won’t release the cash until they have that information.

Officials were not aware Thursday of Shaw’s connection to the fraud allegations included in a Delaware bankruptcy case.

“This is the first I am hearing of it,” Neubauer said. “I’m not sure it’s related at all to the Hot Lotto jackpot claim.”

However, the fact that Shaw is alleged to be tied to a fraud case will require the Iowa Lottery to investigate further, she said. Lottery officials have informed the Iowa Attorney General’s office about the new information and will also call on the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation if necessary.

“If we need to utilize them, we will,” Neubauer said.

Shaw and more than 30 other defendants are named in an adversary proceeding filed April 30 within a Delaware bankruptcy case.

The proceeding, similar to a lawsuit, alleges Shaw and his co-defendants conspired in a “large-scale scheme” to loot a New York-based automotive chemicals company of tens of millions of dollars. Losers in the scheme, according to the lawsuit, were investors that included an Ohio teachers’ pension fund.

Two of the company’s former leaders – also named as Shaw’s co-defendants in the bankruptcy proceeding – have been found guilty of federal criminal charges related to the fraud of Industrial Enterprises of America Inc. (IEAM).

Shaw and his co-defendants accepted 6.2 million shares of freely-traded IEAM stock, valued at $22.8 million, without paying for the stock, the proceeding alleges. Killeen and Associates, for benefit of Shaw, received 400,000 shares, worth $2.35 million, according to the document.

The defendants then sold the stock, keeping the cash and causing the share price to plummet, the proceeding claims. The idea of the scheme was to artificially pump up the company’s stock value while enriching family and friends.

Iowa Lottery officials said they know very little about Shaw.

The investment trust he represents shipped the winning ticket to attorneys in Des Moines, who turned it in to lottery officials just two hours before the year-old ticket would have expired. The ticket was purchased Dec. 23, 2010, at a QuikTrip in Des Moines.

After taxes, the ticket would be worth $7.53 million in a lump sum payment or $400,000 annually for 25 years.

Shaw’s website describes him as a 76-year-old lawyer, financier and management consultant who graduated from Yale. With offices in New York, London and Paris, Shaw served as the assistant secretary of the treasury in the Kennedy Administration, according to his website.

The website says he lives in Freedom, N.H. When Shaw turned in the winning ticket, he presented a driver’s license showing his address in Houston, Texas, Neubauer said. But Shaw told lottery officials he had been living in Bedford, N.Y., for 18 months.

An executive profile of Shaw on Bloomberg Businessweek says he was former CEO and consultant for IEAM, the company he’s accused of defrauding in the Delaware bankruptcy proceeding.

An email message sent through Shaw’s website was not returned Thursday.

The new information about Shaw adds to the rumor mill swirling around the Hot Lotto jackpot, Neubauer said. Multiple people have claimed the ticket was stolen from them, but that is typical with big wins.

“It definitely has been, and continues to be, the most unique situation we have ever seen at the Iowa Lottery,” she said.

Officials will review the court files concerning Shaw as part of the investigation into the winning ticket, Neubauer said.