Iowa Lottery headquarters in Des Moines.

The Iowa Lottery issued an ultimatum today to the lawyer who turned in a winning Hot Lotto ticket claiming he represented a trust which owns the ticket.

Iowa Lottery C.E.O., Terry Rich, says the lawyer must tell the lottery the timeline for the purchase of the ticket, each individual that possessed the ticket and the birthdates and phone numbers of the people by 3 p.m. Friday.

“If in fact we don’t receive the information requested, it is my belief that the security department will recommend to me that we deny payment of this Hot Lotto jackpot, and we will make the decision at that point after three o’clock this Friday,” Rich told reporters.

The ticket is worth over $14-million and was turned in by Attorney Crawford Shaw two hours before the ticket was to expire on December 29th.

Terry Rich

Rich and lottery security officials have met with Shaw, but Rich says Shaw has not provided all the information they asked for to confirm the claim is legitimate.

 ”And truly to me, from the very beginning and everything we’ve talked about, it’s our opinion that the citizens of Iowa deserve to know the story, and that’s what we’re trying to do when all is said and done,” Rich says.

Rich says this is the first time this sort of situation has happened with a jackpot and they decided that after one month of waiting, it was time to set a deadline. If the deadline passes without the information, Rich says the burden then falls on the ticketholder to prove they hold a legal claim.

“From there then it really goes to the owner of the ticket, whether they decided they are the rightful owner and may want to go to a court of law to decide. The point is, we are not going to pay out and will continue to have the money during the process,” Rich says.

He says it’s likely the ticket owner would have to answer the same questions the lottery is asking if they did go to court, so they would be better off to give the information now and be done with it.

Back of winning Hot Lotto ticket.

Rich says if 3 o’clock Friday passes and they don’t have the information, he will consult with his staff and the Attorney General’s office and make a determination on what to do. “It may take a few days… at least it sets us a standard, it sets us a date a given point in time that gives us some closure on where we want to go at this point,” Rich says.

Rich says they have learned that Shaw is associated with criminal proceedings and bankruptcy filings in New York and Delaware, but they don’t know if that has anything to do with the winning ticket.

They also learned during the January 17th meeting that Shaw misspelled the name of the trust on the back of the ticket when he signed it, but Rich said again they don’t know what that means regarding the ability of the ticket owner to collect.

Ashley Smrcina with boyfriend Paul McAllister. (Iowa Lottery photo)

A 22-year-old graduate student in Davenport won’t have any problem paying off her student loans after winning a big Iowa Lottery prize.

Ashley Smrcina, who’s working on her master’s degree in social work at St. Ambrose University, won the top prize of $1 million in the “Lifetime Riches” game.

She bought the $20 ticket and scratched it off while doing research for a school paper at restaurant. “I couldn’t breathe and was crying at the same time,” Smrcina said after realizing how much she’d won.

“The waitress came over and asked, ‘are you okay?’ I said ‘I’m fine.’ But, she came over later and I was just staring at (the ticket) and crying. I said, ‘I think I just won a lot of money, but don’t tell anybody.’”

Smrcina, who moved to Iowa from Michigan in July, claimed her prize Thursday at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Des Moines. “It feels surreal,” Smrcina said. “I can’t believe it. We’ve been here for such a short time. It still gives me goosebumps.”

Smrcina said she took a break from her research at the restaurant and crossed the street to a convenience store. She initially won a $20 prize on a $5 scratch ticket. She then bought a $10 ticket and won $300. The clerk talked Smrcina into buying the $20 ticket which netted the $1 million prize.

Grand prize winners in the “Lifetime Riches” game can choose the annuity option to receive $40,000 per year for a period of 25 years. Smrcina chose to her winnings in a lump-sum payment of $650,000, which nets her $455,000 after taxes.

Smrcina said that she especially looks forward to the fact that her lottery winnings will make her student loans “just disappear.”

A Quad Cities couple got a big surprise over the holiday weekend. Esteban and Linda Ramos of East Moline, Illinois claimed a $1-million Powerball prize today at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Des Moines. Esteban handed the winning ticket to his wife as she was preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

“I looked down at the ticket and realized we had the (winning) numbers. At first I thought I was seeing things. I just felt really dizzy, the room was spinning and I fell over backyards,” Linda Ramos said. “I couldn’t stop crying. I was just flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe it.”

The couple’s winning ticket for the November 19 drawing was purchased at a convenience store in Bettendorf. Fifty-four-year-old Esteban Ramos immigrated to the U.S. in 1978 and became an American citizen in 1990. He works as a machine operator at Production Cutting Services in East Moline. Linda, 47, works as a dispatcher for a school bus company.

After taxes, the couple is collecting $700,000. “A million dollars seems like a lot of money, but after taxes…we’re just going to live comfortable,” Linda said. “We don’t have any children. Our life is going to be a little bit easier now.”

The couple plans to pay bills, plan for retirement, help their families and make some donations to charities they already support. The Ramos’ ticket is the ninth lottery prize of at least $1 million won in Iowa this year.