27million lottery winner dies broke 12 yrs later after insane spending spree [View all]

[Liberal_in_LA]

Too bad someone didn't control his money for him


http://rollingout.com/obituaries/27-million-lottery-winner-lived-feces-died-broke-12-years-hitting-jackpot/



David Lee Edwards blew $27 million and died broke 12 years after hitting the lottery. According to a report by the Daily Mail, Edwards, 58, died alone in a hospice on Nov. 30.

In 2001, Edwards hit the lottery during a time when he was unemployed while living in South Florida. But soon as he got his first check, Edwards went on an insane spending spree.

He bought a $1.6 million house in Palm Beach Gardens; paid $1.9 million for a Lear Jet; bought another home for $600,000; bought three losing race horses; invested $4.5 million in a fiber optics company and limo business; he paid his ex-wife $500,000 for custody of his teenage daughter; bought a $200,000 Lamborghini Diablo and a multitude of other cars; bought a $35,000 Hummer golf cart for his daughter; paid for a $159,000 ring; and paid $30,000 for a plasma screen TV.

In the first three months of winning the lottery, Edwards spent $3 million. At the end of his first year as a lottery winner, he had spent $12 million. By 2006, he had spent nearly all of his money.

Edwards, a felon before winning the lottery, continued to struggle with drug addiction after losing  all of his money. He lost both of his homes and was forced to live in a storage unit that was infested with human feces.

Edwards’ wife drove him to his home state of Kentucky where he lived in a hospice until he passed away.

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But Edwards also had a drug problem. He and Shawna contracted hepatitis from sharing tainted needles, while she had an Oxycontin addiction. The two had multiple run-ins with authorities.

Within five years, he was broke. And once the money dried up, Shawna left him and remarried.

Edwards tried to do right by his winnings. Shortly after falling into his fortune, he had vowed to spend it right, to make it last for Shawna and his daughter.

He even hired a financial adviser, James Gibbs. Gibbs invested some of the winnings in stocks and bonds. But Edwards sold them all off.
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2013/12/david_lee_edwards_powerball_wi.php
"If he followed my advice," Gibbs told New Times in 2007, "he'd be pulling in about $85,000 a month for the rest of his life."

On Tuesday, Edwards' daughter, Tiffani Lee Edwards, said that her father had died penniless and alone. And that he had left her nothing, not even a life insurance policy.