The seller of an unclaimed lottery ticket in Spain worth €4.7m ($5m) is facing up to six years in prison for allegedly defrauding the rightful winner. Manuel Reija Gonzalez initially received praise when he went public in an attempt to find the purchaser in June 2012.
Police now claim that Gonzalez and his brother, a national lottery worker, actually unsuccessfully attempted to cash in the ticket on five different occasions. The A Coruna vendor is facing accusations of fraud, with his brother dealing with deceit and money laundering charges. Both claim that they are innocent.
More than 300 people came forward to claim that they were the rightful winners back in 2012, which led to the lottery organizers initiating an investigation to try to get to the bottom of the matter. They ultimately tracked down the correct owner, only to find that he died in 2014.
tricked the true winner by issuing him a cash prize of little more than a single euro
The seller of the ticket allegedly tricked the true winner by issuing him a cash prize of little more than a euro when he went to the store to check on the numbers. The prosecution believes that the money should now go to the rightful owner’s widow and daughter.