Former lottery security official’s fraud trial delayed

The trial of a former lottery exec accused of rigging a multi-million dollar Iowa Lottery jackpot has been delayed.

Eddie Ray Tipton (pictured), a former director of information security for the Multi State Lottery Association, was arrested in January. The 51-year-old Tipton is facing two counts of fraud for allegedly hacking into the computer system that picked winning lottery numbers. As a lottery employee, Tipton is barred from participating in lottery draws.

A gas station security camera showed a man in a hooded sweatshirt buying a $14.3m Hot Lotto winner in December 2010. This jackpot went unclaimed for nearly a year, until New York attorney Crawford Shaw showed up at Iowa Lottery HQ mere hours before the ticket was set to expire.

Shaw claimed to be acting on behalf of an investment trust, whose membership wished to remain anonymous, But Iowa Lottery rules require jackpot winners to publicly identify themselves, leading Shaw to withdraw all claim to the winning ticket one month later. The jackpot funds were then reabsorbed into the lottery prize pool.