Connecticut Lottery, via Associated PressTim Davidson, second from left; Greg Skidmore, center; and Brandon Lacoff, second from right, on Monday with a ceremonial check for $254 million won in the Connecticut Powerball.
A lottery drama may be coming to a close.
After three Connecticut asset managers stepped forward last week to claim a $254.2 million Powerball jackpot on behalf of the Putnam Avenue Family Trust, speculation swirled that they were handling the money on behalf of a client who wished to remain anonymous.
Now, the beneficiary of the trust has been revealed as a second entity, called the Western Putnam Avenue Trust, that was also formed in connection with the lottery winnings. The three men have stated in an affidavit that they are the only beneficiaries of that trust, which will receive all the assets held by the first trust when it expires on Nov. 22, 2012, according to a copy of the Putnam Avenue Family Trust agreement reviewed by The New York Times.
On Nov. 28, Timothy C. Davidson, Brandon E. Lacoff and Gregory H. Skidmore, three executives with Belpointe Asset Management, an investment firm based in Greenwich, Conn., claimed the winning ticket in the lottery jackpot, the largest in the state’s history. The three money managers formed a trust, collecting an after-tax payment of around $104 million.
The win touched off gossip in Greenwich, a suburb that is home to many of the nation’s wealthiest investors. In the ensuing days, Mr. Davidson sent messages to friends asserting that he was not the true winner of the lottery, according to a copy of one of the messages. He claimed that Belpointe, which managed approximately $100 million, was investing the winnings for a client in exchange for a 2 percent fee.
Those messages were “an ill-advised attempt at humor,” Gary Lewi, a spokesman for Mr. Davidson and the other trustees, said on Tuesday. Mr. Davidson has since identified himself as the person who bought the winning ticket at a BP gasoline station near his home in Stamford, Conn.
The three men signed an affidavit, which was filed with the Connecticut Lottery Corporation and first reported by the Hearst Connecticut Newspapers and The Hartford Courant, that states that they are the sole “lifetime beneficiaries” of the West Putnam Avenue Trust, and that no ineligible winners are involved, according to Jason Kurland, the group’s lawyer.
Collecting lottery winnings through a trust is not uncommon. But before the affidavit was unearthed, the trust-within-a-trust structure struck some experts as vague.
The trust was drafted in a way that the ultimate beneficiary could not be ascertained, said Ronald J. Weiss, a partner at the law firm Skadden Arps specializing in trusts and estates. He is not involved in either trust.
Mr. Kurland said that his three clients were “not hiding anything,” and that the trust structure was intended for privacy and to give the trustees certain options for planning their estates.
Mr. Lewi, the trustees’ spokesman, said the trust agreement had been “reviewed by counsel, and by the state of Connecticut, and is totally consistent with standard estate planning.”
After the burst of intense media attention last week, the three asset managers announced Sunday that they would donate $1 million to five charities focused on the well-being of military veterans, including the Bob Woodruff Foundation and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
“We are leveraging our professional experience and our collective success in money management to ensure these lottery dollars go far further than their face value,” Mr. Davidson, Mr. Lacoff and Mr. Skidmore said in a statement announcing the gifts.
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