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Alas, Poor Abraham, I Know His Kind Well!

On January 6th 2006 Abraham Shakespeare thought he held his salvation in his hand: a winning $30,000,000 lottery ticket.  To be…wealthy beyond dreams of Avarice…or not to be…that is the question.  Abraham did hold the answer in his hand; just not the answer he thought.  Unfortunately, you and I could see Abraham’s problems coming a mile off. 

Abraham Shakespeare, a 43-year-old truck driver’s assistant who had spent time in prison for burglary, battery and failure to pay child support, and who had never graduated from high school knew just exactly what he would do with his lottery winnings. Thinking he knew was perhaps his first mistake, but his next big mistake was taking all the money in one lump sum of cash; $16.9 million once, $30 million over 20 years.

Compounding these errors, he then chose to stand in front of the television cameras at the lottery news conference and wave his BIG check for ALL the world to see. From that point on, his life began a long downward spiral ultimately siphoning him right down the drain. Almost immediately, a co-worker filed suit against him claiming that Shakespeare stole the lottery ticket from him. After six months of litigation, a jury found in Shakespeare’s favor, which was good, but this fellow was just the first of a long line of people determined to separate Shakespeare from his money.

Elizabeth Walker, Shakespeare’s mother, said people didn’t wait, they just came straight after him and would not take “no” for an answer. She said her son was generous, paying for funerals, lending money to friends starting businesses, and even giving $1 million dollars to someone known only as “Big Man”.

As the party rolled on and his entourage grew, Shakespeare ultimately made the biggest mistake he would ever make, becoming “friends” with one Dee Dee Moore. Ms. Moore told Shakespeare she that wanted to write a book about his life story. She then became his financial advisor. No surprise that she had no financial training, but her background did include serving a year on probation for trying to defraud her insurance company into paying for her “stolen” SUV with a fictitious story of carjacking and rape.

Property records show that Moore’s company “American Medical Professionals” bought Shakespeare’s home for $655,000 in January of 2009 and subsequently took over five mortgages totaling $370,000 that had been owed to Shakespeare. She claimed to have sold those mortgages at a loss to “somebody”. According to published reports, Ms. Moore held a joint bank account with Mr. Shakespeare where she acquired nearly $2 million of his money.

In the latter part of 2009, people became curious about Mr. Shakespeare's wellbeing. His mother told police that the last time she saw him was around her birthday in February. Ms. Moore contacted reporters in April saying Shakespeare might be “laying low” trying to avoid the people who were after his money. But it was not until November 9th 2009 that Shakespeare was formally reported missing by a police informant. During the subsequent search, Shakespeare’s mother said she remembered once that he had spoken of moving to Jamaica.

On December 5th 2009 the sobbing Ms. Moore told local newspaper The Ledger that she helped Shakespeare “disappear” to avoid litigation over child support. She told the paper that “Abraham sold me this mess to get a better life.” She even produced a video tape on which Shakespeare says he “is tired of people asking him for money” and “They don’t take no for an answer”. In the video Moore asks “so where you wanna go?” to which Shakespeare replies “It don’t matter to me, I’m not a picky person.” Around Christmas, Shakespeare’s mother said she hoped he was “alive somewhere on a beach in the tropics”.

Sadly, last month the police found Shakespeare’s body buried under five feet of concrete on land owned by an associate of Dee Dee Moore. Ms. Moore is listed as a person of interest in his death.

The tragic thing here is that Mr. Shakespeare could well have made his way to that beach in the tropics if he had sidestepped even just a few of the very first mistakes he made. Had he chosen to take the payments in installments, he would not only have avoided cutting the total value of his winnings nearly in half, but he might have had a chance to learn how to deal with the many problems and benefits of “sudden money”. Had he taken the annual payments he could have been as foolish as he wanted to be with the first installment and then, after seeing that big zero balance in his check book (and working through the depression that would almost certainly have set in), he would have received another big check and maybe become just a little bit wiser the second time around. By year three or four, he may have found a way to manage things.

Had he skipped the Lottery’s noisy news conference and chosen a more quiet entrance into the world of the rich he might have avoided many of the people targeting his wealth. He may even have avoided meeting Dee Dee Moore, the current person of interest in his disappearance and death. Yes, he may have saved his own life.

When I said “I know his kind well” I was referring to the vast of majority of people who struggle with sudden wealth. It’s a difficult thing to manage and most people do poorly in these situations. This is where we come in: we can show a personal injury claimant how to set things up in a way that lets them avoid sudden total losses and learn from mistakes. Dependable income delivered at regular intervals is a recipe for success. If you show this option to them, believe me, they will thank you for it later. They do me.

Do you have a case where the claimant could face these difficulties? Call Frank C. Kilcoyne, CSSC at 800-544-5533. I am here to help.