After several months of waiting, the Florida Lottery finally revealed the identity of the person who claimed the $1.6 billion (USD) prize from last August’s Mega Millions drawing.
This prize was claimed at the end of SeptemberHowever, the Florida lottery keeps the identity of the winners secret for 90 days from when the prize is claimed, so it was only now revealed.
While several people eagerly waited to know the name of the winner, the mystery will persist, as the lucky person decided to remain anonymous in an ingenious way, claiming the prize in the name of a company in Delaware.
The Florida Lottery notes that the $1.6 billion prize was claimed by Saltines Holdings LLC, a Limited Liability Company. The grand prize was claimed in the form of a single payment of 794,248,882 USD.
The strategy is unusual, but legal, and will allow the winner to maintain their anonymity for longer, since, according to Delaware law, the information of company representatives does not have to be public.
When creating a limited liability company, a registered agent must be designated to receive legal notices and official documents, but this information, unlike other states, does not have to be public knowledge.
It is very likely that the company was created for the sole purpose of claiming the prize anonymously, as records indicate that Saltines Holdings LLC was created in early September, almost a month before the grand prize was claimed.
However, when creating an LLC and appointing a representative, he or she must have a physical address in the state of its founding, in this case Delaware, so it is unknown if the winner is originally from that territory, or if he or she will have asked for a please a friend or family member there.
The winning ticket was purchased at a Publix located at 630 Atlantic Blvd., in Neptune Beach. The historic prize was due to the winner matching the sequence of five winning numbers and the Mega Ball number (13, 19, 20, 32, 33 and Mega Ball of 14) that came out in the August 8 draw.
For its part, the Publix supermarket that sold the winning ticket received a commission of $100,000.
