Another arrest made in Hot Lotto fraud investigation
A Texas man was arrested in relation to an Iowa lottery fraud investigation that's been called one of the most bizarre cases in lottery history.
Texas police arrested Robert Clark Rhodes II, 46, of Sugarland, TX., after he allegedly conspired with others to influence the winnings of a $14.3 million Hot Lotto prize prize with the intent to defraud, falsely utter, pass or redeem a lottery ticket, according to a Polk County complaint.
He is being held at the Fort Bend County Jail in Texas on a $500,000 cash-only bond, and extradition proceedings will bring him back to Iowa.
"In the history of lotteries around the world, this was the largest prize that was later withdrawn," said Mary Neubauer, spokesperson for the Iowa Lottery. "It just raised questions from the very start. Our lottery has never encountered anything like this before."
PREVIOUSLY: Lottery vendor employee charged in Hot Lotto fraud case
In December of 2010, a winning Hot Lotto ticket was purchased at the Quik Trip at East 14th and Interstate 80 in Des Moines, but the winner did not come forward.
A year later, a mysterious company incorporated in Belize, tried to claim the prize through Crawford Shaw, a New York attorney, hours before the ticket was set to expire in 2011. The winnings were not released however, as the identity of the ticket purchaser was necessary as per Iowa Code.
In January of 2012, Shaw traveled to Iowa and met with lottery officials to try and provide documentation that might have released the winnings, but without the identity of the purchaser, the lottery refused to pay the claim.
At the end of January, Shaw withdrew claim of ownership to the ticket. Law enforcement tried to interview Shaw and Philip Johnston of Canada about the identity of their client, but interviews did not provide any assistance.
A year later, in August 2013, Johnston was interviewed in Quebec about his knowledge of the ticket. Johnston had attempted to redeem the ticket in December as a representative of an anonymous party.
Johnston said he was first contacted in 2011 with a request for help in claiming a lottery ticket by Robert Sonfield and Rhodes of Houston, Texas. Johnston had a prior professional relationship with both of them, and he said he was told by Sonfield that he represented a client who had a claim to the lottery, but wanted to remain anonymous. In 2014, both Johnston and Shaw confirmed they were working on behalf of Sonfield and Rhodes to try and claim the ticket.
In June 2014, Iowa law enforcement officials traveled to Houston in an attempt to interview Sonfield and Rhodes about their knowledge of the ticket, but to no avail.
A few months later, officials publicly released the video and the audio of the ticket purchase at the Quik Trip. After seeing the video, an out-of-state employee of the Multi-State Lottery Association, provided a tip that the person in the video was Eddie Tipton, 51, of Norwalk, who serves as the director of security for the lottery association The Multi-State Lottery Association serves as a vendor to the Hot Lotto, which meant Tipton was prohibited by Iowa Code to purchase tickets or win from the lottery.
In November, Tipton said he did not buy the ticket at the Quik Trip, and instead, he was in Houston during the period of the purchase. However, cell phone records showed he made calls from Des Moines in the area the ticket was purchased.
During interviews with law enforcement, Tipton did not make any mentions of knowing Rhodes, even though phone records show lengthy conversations between the two.
Check back at www.desmoinesregister.com for updates to this story.