THE winner of a $197 million jackpot has sued the lottery in an ongoing battle over the prize money that has now reached the courts.
Farmarz Lahijani claims he purchased both winning tickets but lost one of them.
He is now suing the California Lottery to try and keep the entire $197 million prize.
Lahijani claimed he bought both tickets at the same gas station in Encino in December 2023.
He came forward in June to claim the winnings from one of the two tickets, but that is where the story took a bizarre twist.
Lahijani was awarded $197 million for presenting one of the two winning tickets.
However, he is now asserting that he is the legitimate owner of both winning tickets, as per a legal case submitted recently in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
He claims that he bought both tickets but was unable to track one of them down before it expired earlier this month.
The winning numbers from the December 8, 2023 drawing were 21, 26, 53, 66, 70, and the Mega Ball was 13.
Lahijani claims he has used the same numbers for decades after his children picked them.
California Lottery officials at the time couldn’t say if the incredibly unlikely lottery result was a coincidence.
But they added that tickets with matching numbers could only purchased in separate transactions.
In California, the holder of a winning ticket has one year exactly to claim the jackpot.
The lawsuit was filed against the California Lottery on December 6, just hours before the expiry date.
Lahijani is suing for breach of contract over the remaining $197 million that made up the rest of the jackpot.
He alleges that there is enough evidence to prove he bought both winning tickets.
If the case gets thrown out and another person is identified as the rightful recipient of the second prize, the deadline to collect the reward in person has already passed on Saturday, December 7.
Top lottery winners in the US
Millions dream of winning the lottery and finding fame and fortune. These are the biggest winners in US lottery history.
- Edwin Castro – $2.04 billion, Powerball, Nov. 8, 2022, in California.
- Theodorus Struyck – $1.765 billion, Powerball, Oct. 11, 2023, in California.
- Unknown winner – $1.602 billion, Mega Millions, Aug. 8, 2023, in Florida.
- Marvin and Mae Acosta from Los Angeles, California, John and Lisa Robinson from Munford, Tennessee, and Maureen Smith and David Kaltschmidt from Melbourne Beach, Florida – $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016.
- Unknown winner – $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018, from South Carolina.
- Unknown winner – he sued the mother of his child to keep his identity hidden – $1.348 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023, from Maine.
- Unknown winner – $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022, from Illinois.
- Cheng and Duanpen Saephan, and Laiza Liem Chao – $1.326 billion, Powerball, April 7, 2024, from Oregon.
- Yanira Alvarez – $1.08 billion Powerball, July 19, 2023 in California.
- Wolverine FLL Lottery Club – $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021, from Michigan.
- Unknown winner – $842.4 million Powerball, Jan. 1, 2024, from Michigan.
The California Lottery is yet to make any official comment on the case.
“In order to preserve the fairness of the procedures in place, it would not be suitable for the California Lottery to provide any comments regarding an ongoing lawsuit or any legal matters,” stated Carolyn Becker, the California Lottery’s representative, in a communication obtained by Nextstar affiliate KTLA5.
Retailers that sell a winning jackpot ticket worth over $1 million receive a bonus of half of one percent of the prize.
The maximum a store can receive is $1 million, with the Chevron location set to earn $987,500 from each winning ticket.
This total was the largest amount ever given to a single retailer in California Lottery history.
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