Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 21, 1992 TAG: 9202210276
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By THOMAS HUANG and STEVE SUO LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long
OILMAN LINKED TO PLAN TO COVER LOTTO TICKETS
The president of a small-town Illinois oil and gas company is believed to be the mysterious man known only as "Alex" who bought at least $2 million in Virginia lottery tickets from Farm Fresh last week in an effort to buy the $27 million jackpot.The man, Anithalee Alex Jr., president of Paramount Oil and Gas Corp. Inc. of Teutopolis, Ill., and a small group of individuals ran their high-stakes operation out of The Koger Center in Norfolk.
Law enforcement officials confirm that they are investigating Alex in connection with a scheme to cover all possible number combinations for the record drawing.
Couriers using business cards that read "U.S. Oil" and "Alex" delivered piles of lottery play slips to Farm Fresh stores to buy $3 million in lottery tickets. The group succeeded in getting only 2.4 million $1 tickets because there was not enough time to print the entire order.
The winning ticket was purchased at a Farm Fresh store. But the winner of the jackpot has yet to surface, and the Virginia State Police and the FBI are continuing to look into the multimillion-dollar block purchases of tickets that preceded Saturday night's drawing. There are, however, no allegations of wrongdoing.
The U.S. Secret Service said Thursday it was pulling out of the investigation because the case didn't appear to fall under its purview.
Alex is described by Teutopolis residents as a 5-foot-11, 210-pound dark-complexioned man in his 40s, with thick, black hair down to the collar, who constantly talks on a cellular phone.
A reporter spoke briefly Wednesday with a man matching Alex's description at The Koger Center. The man, carrying a cellular phone over his shoulder, would not identify himself.
An Illinois state official identified Alex in a photo sent from Norfolk by fax.
"One week he's driving a Rolls, the next a 1970s Ford," a Teutopolis official, who asked not to be identified, said of Alex. Alex and his wife have driven cars sporting vanity license plates announcing: "USOIL1," "IM N OIL," and "IM XLNT."
"They live here in town, but they have very little business to do in the local area," said Ron Custer, a local bank manager. The family is "a conversation piece around town." Teutopolis is a town of about 1,200 residents in south-central Illinois.
Neighbors said Alex is a former Rolls Royce salesman from Atlanta who now owns an oil company. He and his wife and son have lived in Teutopolis about eight years, neighbors said. The family travels often. Their telephone number is unlisted.
They live in a two-story, red brick home with a wooden shingle hanging from a post embossed with the family's name. The shades are drawn, and the house is closed up, according to neighbors. A bright-red Jeep Cherokee, with Texas license plates, was parked in the driveway Thursday.
Paramount Oil and Gas Corp., which has no local telephone listing, was incorporated in Illinois on Dec. 30, 1983, state corporation officials said. The Illinois state government dissolved the company on May 1, 1989, when it failed to file several annual reports, the officials said.
Farm Fresh Chairman Mike Julian, in a news conference Thursday, said he got a call six months ago from a man who described himself as an investor in large lottery jackpots across the country.
The man, whom Julian refused to identify, told Julian he had developed a method to strengthen his odds and that he had already won several jackpots nationwide. He wanted to buy large amounts of Virginia Lottery tickets through Farm Fresh.
Julian said he called officials at the state Lottery Board and was told that such a transaction would be legal. Then, on Feb. 11, the customer called back. If the lottery reached $15 million, he told Julian, he wanted to buy a "large amount of tickets."
"A large amount" meant roughly $3 million, Julian said.
Paying in $10,000 lump sums with cashier's checks issued through Crestar Bank, the customer sent the couriers to different Farm Fresh locations to collect the tickets, Julian said. Each courier was required to show a business card with the words, "Alex" and "U.S. Oil" printed on it.
"We picked the name `Alex' as a control name," Julian said.
From Feb. 13 until the drawing Saturday night, Farm Fresh printed tickets. In all, the group bought 2.4 million tickets. Farm Fresh had to reimburse the group $600,000 for the tickets the company did not have time to run off before the drawing.
The store's 5 percent commission on the sale came to $120,000.
The tickets bought at Farm Fresh were paid for with cashier's checks from Crestar Bank after $7.2 million was transferred from Australia to Norfolk. The money apparently was to be used to cover all 7,059,052 possible combinations of lottery numbers.
Bulk purchasers at Farm Fresh, Miller Mart stores and Open House Diners all used cashier's checks drawn from Crestar Bank, which strongly suggests that only one group was involved.
Miller Oil Co. sold $750,000 in tickets at its Miller Mart convenience stores after two individuals made the arrangements several months earlier. The Open House Diners sold $180,000 in tickets to one buyer who told store officials his group wanted as little exposure as possible.
Uni-Mart convenience stores, part of a Pennsylvania-based chain, sold $1.5 million to one buyer.
The winner has 180 days to come forward and pick up the first of 20 annual checks for $1,026,000.
Landmark writers Laura LaFay and Marc Tibbs contributed to this report.