A Los Angeles man who won half of a $394 million Mega Millions jackpot a year ago is suing the California Lottery for the other half.
Faramarz Lahijani claims he purchased two tickets with the same numbers from a Chevron gas station for the Dec. 8, 2023 draw, but he lost one of them. He still can’t find it.
Lahijani came forward to collect the first half of the prize, $197.5 million, in June, but didn’t comment publicly, telling the Lottery he wasn’t interested in speaking to the media.
Unusual Transaction
It’s not clear why Lahijani chose to purchase two tickets with the same numbers when one would have had the same effect.
The Lottery announced just after the draw that both winning tickets had been sold at the same outlet, a Chevron gas station on Ventura Boulevard in Encino – a first.
A Lottery spokesperson indicated that the two winning tickets had been purchased “over two separate transactions,” but could only speculate as to why.
“While this is incredibly unusual and interesting, it’s not unheard of,” the spokesperson said. “There are any number of explanations. Perhaps one person wanted to try their luck on two different rows for whatever reason, or maybe a couple of buddies wanted to try their chances with the same exact numbers. We won’t know exactly how this happened until the prize is claimed.”
Breach of Contract
In his lawsuit, filed last Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Lahijani spells it out in black and white. He claims he purchased both winning Mega Millions tickets, is the “sole winner,” and is therefore “entitled to the entire jackpot … by virtue of his having timely submitted the first matching ticket.”
He also argues the Lottery has sufficient information to know that he is the rightful winner of the whole jackpot. The purchase of lottery tickets creates a contractual relationship between the buyer and the California Lottery, which the latter is violating by not paying out, according to the lawsuit.
The suit was filed just days before the date the alleged lost ticket would expire, Dec. 8, 2024, “out of an abundance of caution to preserve all rights which he has to the entire December 8, 2023 Mega Millions jackpot.”
The Lottery has said it has no comment on the ongoing lawsuit.
One party that has no complaint about the situation is the gas station where the two winning tickets were sold. Under California rules, retailers that sell a ticket worth more than $1 million earn a bonus of 0.5% of the prize value. Because the Chevron in Encino sold two – whomever it may have sold the second one to – it got a record bonus of $1.9 million.
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Rephrased by The Mystic Gambler
