5. Eddie Raymond Tipton
Eddie Raymond Tipton is a 52-year-old former information security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association. And he must have wanted to participate in the excitement. Badly. He was found guilty in Iowa on two counts of fraud for his role in a $14.3 million lottery win.
He was accused of installing a self-deleting computer program (a rootkit) on a Hot Lotto drawing computer so he could orchestrate a winning ticket worth $14.3 million.
4. £3M Failed To Be Claimed In Scottland
The winner, who would have shared in a quadruple-rollover prizehad 180 days to claim the money, but did not.
Winnings: $315 million
Time until bust: 4 years
4. £3M Failed To Be Claimed In Scottland
The winner, who would have shared in a quadruple-rollover prizehad 180 days to claim the money, but did not.
The £3,062,272 prize, plus the interest it has accumulated, will now go towards National Lottery funded projects.
This money, and all the interest earned over the 180 days, will now go to benefit projects all over the UK funded by the National Lottery.
3. Misplaced Ticket
A California Lottery winner lost out on the opportunity to claim his $1-million Powerball prize after he misplaced his ticket.
The man saw news reports about himself buying the ticket in Rosemead and came forward, saying he was the winner, KABC-TV reported. But, he said, he lost his ticket
2. William Post III
Winnings: $16.2 million
Time until bust: 3 months
After Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988, he fell victim to crime, bankruptcy, tragedy and simply poor spending habits. In the two weeks after he received his first annual payment of nearly $500,000, he had already blown two-thirds of it, purchasing a restaurant, a used-car lot, and an airplane.within three months, he was $500,000 in debt.
according to Yahoo News, Post’s brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to try to kill him and his sixth (yes, sixth) wife; his relatives convinced him to invest in worthless business ventures; and his landlady duped him into handing over a third of his cash.
2. William Post III
Winnings: $16.2 million
Time until bust: 3 months
After Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988, he fell victim to crime, bankruptcy, tragedy and simply poor spending habits. In the two weeks after he received his first annual payment of nearly $500,000, he had already blown two-thirds of it, purchasing a restaurant, a used-car lot, and an airplane.within three months, he was $500,000 in debt.
according to Yahoo News, Post’s brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to try to kill him and his sixth (yes, sixth) wife; his relatives convinced him to invest in worthless business ventures; and his landlady duped him into handing over a third of his cash.
1. Andrew “Jack” Whittaker
Winnings: $315 million
Time until bust: 4 years
Whittaker may have been the wealthiest man ever to win a major lottery jackpot. When the 55-year-old West Virginia construction company president won a $315 million Powerball jackpot in December 2002 — at the time, the largest jackpot ever won by a single ticket — he was already worth some $17 million. And Whittaker knew to distribute his new mega-wealth, pledging to give 10 percent of his fortune to Christian charities, donating $14 million to his Jack Whittaker Foundation, and even giving a $123,000 house, a new Dodge Ram Truck, and $50,000 in cash to the woman who worked at the convenience store where he had purchased his winning ticket.
But even Whittaker couldn’t escape his own demons. Beset by legal difficulties and personal problems, he began drinking heavily and frequenting strip clubs. On Aug. 5, 2003, thieves stole $545,000 from his car in a West Virginia strip club parking lot while he was inside. In January 2007, Whittaker reported to the police that thieves had completely emptied his bank accounts. On Jan. 25, 2004, robbers once again broke into his car, stealing an estimated $200,000 in cash that was later recovered. And a string of personal tragedies followed. On Sept. 17, 2004, his granddaughter’s boyfriend was found dead from a drug overdose in Whittaker’s home. Three months later, the granddaughter also died of a drug overdose. Her mother, Ginger Whittaker Bragg, died five years later on July 5, 2009. Whittaker himself is alleged to be broke — a claim he made as early as January 2007 for failing to pay a women who successfully sued him. He’s also being sued by Caesars Atlantic City casino for bouncing $1.5 million worth of checks to cover gambling losses. “I wish I’d torn that ticket up,” he sobbed to reporters at the time of his daughter’s death.
