Powerball winner who demands anonymity to get money
February 14, 2018 by admin
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A New Hampshire woman who won a $559.7 million Powerball jackpot should be able to collect the winnings soon while a judge decides whether to let her remain anonymous.
A judge in Nashua heard arguments Tuesday from lawyers for the woman who say her privacy interests outweigh what the state says is the public’s right to know who won the money in the nation’s eighth-largest lottery jackpot.
The woman, identified as Jane Doe, signed the ticket following the Jan. 6 drawing, but later learned from a lawyer that she could have shielded her identity by writing the name of a trust.
Outside the court, both sides seemed to agree the money could be transferred in the coming days into a trust the woman has set up — the Good Karma Family Trust of 2018.
Her lawyers claim the delay in payment was costing her about $14,000-a-day or about $500,000 a month in interest, and have filed a separate motion with the court to release the money.
“This money is just sitting there doing nothing for nobody,” William Shaheen, one of the woman’s lawyers said. “It’s very important that we redeem this ticket and she gets on with her life.”
New Hampshire Lottery Executive Director Charlie McIntyre said he was inclined to honor the woman’s request, saying it was a separate issue from whether to reveal her name and address.
“We don’t want to be in a position that is adversarial with our prize winners. These are our customers,” McIntyre said.
Lawyers for the woman contend that she was already experiencing stress over the prospect of having to go public and that disclosing her identify would put her safety at risk, expose her family and friends to unwanted media attention and inundate her with harassing calls and emails from people wanting a portion of her fortune.
As part of their motion, the lawyers said their firm has received hundreds of emails. They listed requests for money from sick or homeless people and investment opportunities including an Indonesian company wanting to expand its pallet company across Asia.
“How does a person deal with all that, never mind real concerns about threats to her safety?” asked attorney Steven Gordon. “There is documented history of people being harmed, people coming into their homes.”
McIntyre countered it was in the public’s interest to know who won the jackpot and that past lottery winners have gone on to lead “productive, normal, healthy lives and enjoy the fruits of those winnings — pay for college, pay off houses, donate to good causes.”
“For us, this is about the challenge of balancing the privacy rights of the winner against the right of the public to know what the lottery does,” McIntyre said.
In court, a lawyer for the commission said the law was clear on the requirement to release her name and failing to publicize her identity could erode trust in the lottery.
“We don’t get to choose when we follow the law and when we don’t,” Assistant Attorney General John Conforti told the court. “Where there is a public interest in information within a public document, we have an obligation to disclose it. We can’t choose to avoid that obligation because it’s inconvenient or messy.”
Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Charles Temple didn’t indicate when he would rule.
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New York City bomber Ahmed Rahimi sentenced to life in prison
February 14, 2018 by admin
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A New Jersey man allegedly inspired by ISIS and al Qaeda to plant bombs in New York City and New Jersey was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday — after complaining that he was being discriminated against for being Muslim.
“I don’t harbor hate toward anyone,” Ahmed Khan Rahimi said during a rambling statement in which he defended his family and criticized the FBI, prosecutors and prison officials.
But, he added, “I have come to understand why there is such a big frustration between Muslims overseas and the American people.”
Rahimi, 30, claimed that he was harassed by federal authorities while traveling in Muslim garb. “I was singled out,” he said.
He mocked prosecutors for referring to his diary as a letter, suggested he was punished for minor rule breaking in prison and even seemed to blame the FBI for not doing more to stop him when he was briefly investigated him in 2014.
Rahimi, 30, said nothing about the victims of the September 2016 blast in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood that injured 30 people — which prosecutors noted in asking for the maximum sentence.
“Mr. Rahimi just stood here for the last 10 minutes and blamed everyone else for his actions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Crowley said. “He is unrepentant. He shows no sympathy for his victims.”
A half-dozen victims sat in the front row of the courtroom to see Rahimi sentenced. One of them, Pauline Nelson, told Rahimi that she cries every time she thinks of the night the bomb exploded near a car she was in.
“You have no remorse,” Nelson said. “God forgive you.”
Rahimi was convicted in October of eight federal counts stemming from two explosive devices: the one that detonated in a dumpster in Chelsea, and another left blocks away that didn’t go off.
One of the counts called for a maximum life sentence so his punishment was preordained, but U.S. District Judge Richard Berman also gave him the maximum on the other counts for a total of two life sentences plus 30 years.
Berman noted it was miraculous the Chelsea bomb didn’t kill anyone.
“It’s inexplicable that anyone would do that intentionally,” he said. “But it’s clear from the evidence and the record that you did.”
Rahimi is also accused of planting a bomb near a race route in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, that detonated before the runners passed by, and of leaving six bombs in backpack near the Elizabeth, New Jersey, train station. He is awaiting trial in New Jersey on those charges.
Rahimi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan, was arrested after a gunfight with New Jersey police, who found he was carrying a journal with praise for Islamic terrorists and promises of violence.
Rahimi — a father of three who had worked in his family’s fried-chicken restaurant — was not charged with terrorism, but his father said he has no doubt that’s what fueled his son.
The father, Mohammad Rahimi, told NBC New York on Monday that he told the FBI in 2014 that he was worried his son might have been radicalized.
“After two months, they say, ‘Your son is not doing any act like a terrorist,’” Rahimi. said “I said, ‘You sure he not doing anything?’ He say, ‘Yeah, is good news.’”
“My son, he did wrong, and the FBI did the wrong, too,” the father added. “The government is responsible for that reason. They have the power to stop the crime and they did not stop the crime.”
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In court, Rahimi echoed his father’s remarks, seeming to blame the FBI for not stopping him sooner.
“My father did his best to try to quell everything down,” he said. “He feels like the system failed him.”
The FBI has said that the bomber’s father did not tell them about his son’s possible terrorist leanings.
Federal prosecutors say that after his arrest, Rahimi passed on terrorist propaganda and instructions on how to make explosives to other inmates.
Rahimi railed at that accusation in court, saying one of the inmates had been “groomed” by the FBI in a sting operation and was radicalized long before they ever crossed paths.