[ad_1]
Alex Horton
Generalist journalist covering national and last-minute news
It was a cool October day in Simpsonville, S.C., a perfect place and time for a scenic walk.
A woman stops near KC Mart # 7 near Lee Vaughn Road and Scuffletown Road, in a rural part of a town on the outskirts of Greenville, where the mayor says, "There is a church on every street corner. ".
This is the sign that caught his attention: an upcoming drawing for Mega Millions was going to be historic, with a jackpot of $ 1,500,000,000. She stopped to buy a ticket, said her lawyer, Jason Kurland, in a statement, confident that she had no chance of winning.
"After checking her ticket the day after the draw, she was in shock and disbelief. She looked at the ticket motionless for hours, then came the jump and shouted for joy, "said Kurland.
The woman claimed her prize last week, said Kurland, but declined to give his name out of fear for his safety. The South Carolina Lottery announced that it would receive a single gross payment of $ 878 million – the biggest jackpot win ever won by a single winner.
"The words can not describe the feeling of this incredible luck," said the winner in his statement. "I realize that such a chance involves tremendous social responsibility and gives me a unique opportunity to help, support and contribute to the charities and causes that are important to me."
[You’ve won the Mega Millions jackpot! Time to hide.]
South Carolina is one of the few states where lottery winners can remain anonymous, Kurland told the Washington Post. And the winners have many reasons to stay out of the scene.
"It's ridiculously big and you become an easy target," he said about the money. Friends, family, fake charities and scammers – they all come when a prize is made public.
In addition, social media makes it easy to gather details and find people who might not want to give their name. Kurland said. He declined to provide any other description of the winner.
What we know are the groups that will benefit from his philanthropy: the Ronald McDonald House of Charity in Columbia, South Carolina; tornado relief fund in the Alabama Red Cross Region; The Simpsonville Art Center; the One S.C. Fund for Cyclone Assistance Florence; and In The Middle, a charitable organization for breast cancer survivors.
Kurland helps big winners win the lottery to think about their projects with financial advisors and accountants. But none of her clients have brought home so much. The next closest is about half, at $ 330 million.
The winner in South Carolina, by contrast, became overnight one of the most liquid citizens of the United States, he said. And it's really like that: the winner's bank had to be informed before her account suddenly developed with several zeros, he said.
The store that sold the winning ticket will receive a bonus of $ 50,000; the winner will win $ 61 million in income taxes, lottery officials said.
"We are delighted that the winner is a South Carolinian and has come forward to claim this remarkable award," said Hogan Brown, executive director of the Lotteries Commission, in a statement. "We respect the winner's decision to remain anonymous and we will honor his wishes."
The other lottery winners had to fight for the same status. Last year, in New Hampshire, a woman who won the lottery sued the state for keeping her identity secret. A judge later ruled that she could remain anonymous.
Eli Rosenberg contributed to this report.
Read more:
How Mega Millions changed the odds to create a record $ 1.5 billion jackpot
He won the $ 314 million Powerball jackpot. It ruined his life.
The $ 451 million of this 20-year retirement
[ad_2]
Source link