Update: Iowa EX- Lottery Employee Heads to Court!!!

Okay, do you remember an earlier post about an attorney who FedExed a lottery ticket and claim form to the Iowa Lottery trying to claim a $16.5 million dollar jackpot by a closed trust? And when the lottery requested more information about the purchaser of the winning ticket, the attorney dropped the matter all together? Well as it turned out, the winning lottery ticket was purchased by Eddie Tipton, one of 4 people who had security clearance to the drawing room. Eddie installed malware that would run a sophisticated program to generate a winning ticket and then disappear without a trace.

Prosecutors allege surveillance video shows a hooded and bearded Tipton buying a winning lotto ticket at a Des Moines convenience store in 2010, all part of his 21st century inside job, they say, to win a $16.5 million jackpot.

Tipton was then security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, making it illegal for him to play the lottery.

Investigators say he purchased the winning ticket after he rigged the game in his favor.
In 2011, just hours before the ticket was set to expire, attorneys representing a trust attempted to claim the prize money.

"Beyond a reasonable doubt, not only was he the purchaser of that ticket, not only did he pass that ticket along to be claimed by others, but he tampered with lottery equipment in order to know what those numbers would be," prosecutor Rob Sand said.


The prosecution alleges Tipton tampered with security cameras and used a thumb drive to install malware, enabling him to pick the winning numbers. Examinations of the lottery's computers showed no signs of tampering.

Tipton's attorneys deny he was part of a scheme and say it's not him in the surveillance video.
"This isn't a case about deductions and inferences; this is a case about speculation," defense attorney Dean Stowers said. (Rolls eyes, of course the defense attorney is going to deny deny deny. hahaha)

There is one piece of digital evidence that can hurt the defense and Tipton's credibility: his cell phone records. They show he was in Iowa when the tickets were purchased and not in Texas, where he claims to have been instead. If convicted, Tipton could face 10 years in prison.