Crawford Shaw, 76, a Yale-educated lawyer, living in Bedford, New York- who tried to redeem a multi-million dollar Iowa lottery ticket worth up to $14.3 million – withdrew his claim to the Hot Lotto ticket after lottery officials gave him a Friday afternoon deadline to identify the ticket’s purchaser. But, this hasn’t put an end to questions about this strange situation.

“I’m not going to argue with the lottery,” Shaw said. State lottery

And even when this appears to end the “strangest jackpot pursuit in the lottery’s 26-year history”, the investigation will continue “to ensure the integrity of the lottery and to determine whether those involved complied with state law,” Iowa’s attorney general said in a statement Thursday night.

As the lawyer walked away from the money, “People cannot believe that someone was just willing to walk away from $14 million, and they want to know why,” said Mary Neubauer, a Lottery spokeswoman.

On Dec. 29, Des Moines lawyers representing Shaw turned in the winning ticket to lottery headquarters, Iowa Lottery officials tested and validated the stub, but refused to pay out until they verified the purchaser’s identity, among other things.

Shaw, who signed as a trustee for Hexham Investments Trust, never revealed who was in the trust, but said, “There’s one trustee and there’s one beneficiary, and the beneficiary is a corporation in Belize.”

Shaw said he never knew the identity of the purchaser and that another lawyer had contacted him about the ticket about 10 days before the deadline. Lotteries

So, who is Crawford Shaw?

According to Shaw’s personal website, he has been a “leading international lawyer, financier and management consultant with offices in New York, London and Paris.” It also says that he graduated from Yale College in 1958 and Yale Law School in 1961.

A spokeswoman for the law school confirmed Shaw received a law degree there in 1961.

The website also says that he lives in Freedom, New Hampshire, but he told reporters that he lives in Bedford, New York, and he showed Iowa Lottery authorities a Texas driver’s license.

According to an executive profile on Bloomberg Businessweek, Shaw is chairman of the board, CEO and president of Extensions Inc, a Houston corporation and serves as a consultant to IEAM.

And now that he has withdrawn his claim, the Iowa Lottery officials intend to put the money from the winning ticket back into the prize pool. And even when, Mary Neubauer said “more than five people had contacted the lottery alleging the ticket was stolen from them, some even before it was turned in, some as late as Friday, it does not appear those are the folks who had the winning ticket.”

And because the mystery continues and many questions are still unanswered, investigators will keep searching as the reputation and integrity of the lottery is on the line. It is now key to determine if people involved in this puzzle committed any kind of crime, and if so, to determine too who is responsible for it.