Man who won $2 billion in lottery accused of stealing his winning ticket
The man who won an incredible jackpot of over $2 billion in the lottery has been accused of stealing the winning ticket that brought him his fortune.
Edwin Castro was winning every lottery player's dream when he won the $2.1 billion Powerball and chose to take the lump sum of $997.6 million before taxes, making him wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of most people.
His first purchase with the money was a $25.5 million mansion in the Hollywood Hills, which is pretty understandable as buying a fancy house is probably what a lot of people would do with their lottery win - if they had one.
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However, there may be trouble brewing for Castro as according to the US Sun, the lottery winner has been served with legal papers thanks to a lawsuit claiming that the winning ticket was stolen.
A man called Jose Rivera, is alleging that he was the one who actually bought the ticket that won over $2 billion on the Powerball.
Rivera claims that he bought the ticket but soon had it stolen from him by a man who goes by 'Reggie', who has been identified as Urachi F. Romero.
He said he tried to get his ticket back but was told that Romero had lost it, though would split the winnings with him if the ticket turned out to be good.
Rivera has claimed that the security footage at the store where the lottery ticket was bought will prove he's the one who actually paid for it in the first place.
Despite the lawsuit against Castro, lottery officials are still pretty sure that they have the 'rightful winner' and are sure that their vetting process is still working well for matters dealing with money as big as this.
Both Castro and Romero, along with the California State Lottery Commission, are being sued in the lawsuit.
According to the Daily Mail, back in February when the lawsuit was first filed, it was called 'crazy' by a worker at Joe's Service Center, California, where the winning ticket was bought.
They claimed that the California Lottery did properly vet the Powerball winner by going through their video footage 'frame by frame' to make sure they had the right person.
By the way, if you're wondering how someone can win a lottery jackpot of over $2 billion and walk away with less than half of that, it's because when you win you can either get the whole prize pot in instalments or take a significantly reduced lump sum as quickly as possible.
Joe Harker