The lawyer cannot present the ticket for verification on behalf of his clients?
I'm sure the lottery officials love trotting out smiling faces for the press to see and ask all the dumb questions about what they'll do with the money.
Me personally, while I hate the idea of everybody I've ever known and many I may have never known pestering me, I would go along with it and when asked the stupid questions I would say "it's none of your fvcking business"! Press conference over, where's my check, see ya later.
Then I'd burn my past and disappear.
Perhaps these people have good reasons not to come out, maybe they're crooks, maybe they used to be crooks and are in WitSec, who knows. Nothing to investigate though, so why would the state waste money in the effort? But they obviously suspect something is fishy with these folks, and once on the hunt, some dogs don't rest till something is cornered.