In Spain, a lottery vendor defrauded a jackpot winner out of €4.7 million
In Spain, a court sentenced a lottery ticket seller to three and a half years in prison for fraud involving a €4.7 million prize. The man attempted to embezzle the jackpot of a customer who had won the lottery back in 2012.
As the court in La Coruña found, the seller knew that one of the buyer’s tickets was a winner, but deliberately told him that none of the tickets had won a prize.
He then attempted to claim the prize for himself, claiming that he had allegedly found the winning ticket in his store.
However, the lottery administration suspended the payment and seized the disputed ticket, launching an investigation to identify its true owner. Over the course of eight years, the seller repeatedly attempted to prove his right to the multi-million-dollar prize.
The true owner of the winning ticket died in 2014, but the court ruled that the entire prize must be paid to his heirs.
Following the trial, the man was found guilty of fraud with aggravating circumstances and sentenced to imprisonment.
However, the court’s decision is not yet final and may be appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court.
This was reported by Reuters.
Earlier in Hong Kong, five participants in the Mark Six lottery, organized by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, won a record jackpot of $25.6 million, with each receiving over $5 million. This event was the largest in the lottery’s history and generated significant public interest.
In the U.S., on the eve of Christmas, a player from Arkansas won the $1.817 billion Powerball jackpot. This is the second-largest win in the country’s history, which could change the winner’s life forever.
