{"id":28906,"date":"2016-01-11T09:07:25","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T13:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=28906"},"modified":"2016-01-11T09:07:25","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T13:07:25","slug":"inside-the-biggest-lottery-scam-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=28906","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Biggest Lottery Scam Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Emil<\/a>

Emil Lendof\/The Daily Beast.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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M.L. Nestel
\nThe Daily Beast<\/p>\n

A locked room, a fat suit, and a pump-and-dump stock scheme: They\u2019re all part of what the cops say is the ultimate attempt to rig the lotto.
\nIt was two days before Christmas in 2010 and Eddie Tipton had a $16.5 million lottery winner in his pocket.<\/p>\n

Sporting a hooded jacket, the stocky 47-year-old approached a silver-haired clerk at the counter of an Iowa-based Quik Trip market at around 3:30 p.m., stacking on the counter $3.17 worth of hot dogs, a fountain soda and two tickets.<\/p>\n

But Tipton didn\u2019t need Lady Luck. The Quik Trip purchase was phase two of a crafty plan to take the 29 million-to-1 odds out of the lottery equation.<\/p>\n

The first phase came a month before when Tipton inputted the same winning numbers in the computer system tucked away in Iowa Lottery\u2019s secure \u201cDraw Room.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At least, that\u2019s the story Iowa prosecutors would have you believe.<\/p>\n

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To hear Eddie Tipton tell it, he\u2019s a lottery patsy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m having to defend myself against hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of investigative time,\u201d he told The Daily Beast in an exclusive phone interview at his home, where he was awaiting trial after posting $10,000 bail. \u201cThey\u2019re running against time because the statute of limitations was almost up and they gotta find somebody. So they throw it all on me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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On January 15, 2015, more than four years after the Hot Lotto ticket was bought at the mini-mart, Tipton was arrested for attempted fraud by the Iowa State Police. \u201cI was like \u2018What for?\u2019\u2014It came as a complete shock,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tipton faces five years in what amounts to an alleged lotto shakedown. Now 52 years old, unemployed, and living off his savings, his trial begins on July 13.<\/p>\n

Tipton believes he\u2019ll be exonerated, although the authorities have already released a video of the Hot Lotto ticket purchase. According to a criminal complaint, voice experts and a Tipton pal all say it\u2019s Tipton on the screen. Authorities also accuse Tipton of using his security clearance to juke the lottery\u2019s computer, and teamed with a close friend to recruit a crew to collect the winnings.<\/p>\n

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Tipton went into the lottery\u2019s fortified \u201cDraw Room.\u201d He said he was there to update the lottery computer system. Instead, the authorities say, he tinkered with the room\u2019s video recorder and closed circuit cameras.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Eddie Tipton\u2019s case may piece together the most ornate and brazen run on the lottery of all time. It\u2019s certainly the largest jackpot claimed and then withdrawn in lottery history. And Tipton\u2014if he did pull off the attempted heist\u2014may not be the only one in on the job.<\/p>\n

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