Lottery IT Security Pro Accused of Rigging Equipment to Win $14.3 Million on Hot Lotto

It is believed a former computer security director at an Iowa lottery vendor manipulated equipment before buying a Hot Lotto ticket that would go on to win millions of dollars.

Eddie Raymond Tipton allegedly purchased a Hot Lotto ticket at a QuikTrip store on Dec. 23, 2010. At the time, Tipton was the director of information security at the Multi-State Lottery Association. His job barred him from claiming lottery prizes.

He apparently enlisted the help of conspirators to try to claim the $14.3 million prize.

The defense argues Tipton could not have edited or accessed the Random Number Generator in December 2010 because he was in Texas from the afternoon of Dec. 23, 2010 until after New Year's 2011.

Tipton’s defense also claims the RNG computers were in a "locked glass-walled room accessible only by two people at a time and then only on camera" and not connected to any network.

It is suspected Tipton inserted an infected thumbdrive into the RNG tower on Nov. 20, 2010.

Tipton's co-workers said he "was 'obsessed' with root kits, a type of computer program that can be installed quickly, set to do just about anything, and then self-destruct without a trace." Tipton told a witness before December 2010 that he had a self-destructing root kit.

“The ticket Tipton has been accused of buying went unclaimed for almost a year. Hours before the ticket was set to expire in 2011, Hexham Investments Trust, a mysterious company incorporated in Belize, tried to claim the prize through Crawford Shaw, a New York attorney,” the Des Moines Register reports.

Lottery officials refused to release the prize because the people behind the trust declined to give their identities.

Investigators found a man in Quebec City, Canada, who was listed on a Grantor Trust Agreement as Hexham Investments Trust's trustor and president.

The Canada man said two Houston men asked for his help in claiming the lottery ticket in October 2011. One of the two men told the Canada man that he "represented a client who had a legitimate claim to the lottery but wanted to remain anonymous," according to a criminal complaint.

Tipton said in an interview with a special agent on Nov. 7 that he did not buy the ticket. He said he was seeing family in Houston, where he grew up.

But Tipton's cellphone records indicate he was in Des Moines when the ticket was purchased. Authorities said Tipton rented a silver 2007 Ford Edge, which matched the vehicle of the buyer of the winning lottery ticket, on Dec. 22, 2010.