Faramarz Lahijani, who recently won $197.5 million in the Mega Millions, is taking legal action against the lottery, arguing that he should have been awarded nearly double the amount due to a missing winning ticket he claims to have bought. He purchased the lucky ticket from a gas station on Ventura Blvd in Encino, California, and made his win public in June.
Lahijani’s lawsuit, filed last week against the California Lottery, aims to increase his winnings to close to $400 million. He filed the suit just hours before the deadline to claim the supposed missing ticket’s prize expired.
The lawsuit, as reported by the Patch, argues: “By virtue of his having timely submitted the first matching ticket, plaintiff is entitled to the entirety of the jackpot.”
The winning numbers 21, 26, 53, 66, 70, and gold Mega Ball 13 were chosen by Lahijani’s children, numbers he claims to have been playing for years.
Some may wonder how identical numbers could be played twice at the same location. Carolyn Becker, a spokesperson for the California Lottery, provided some insight, stating: “While this is incredibly unusual and interesting, it’s not unheard of.”
Becker continued: “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.”
Winning the Mega Millions jackpot twice is extraordinarily rare, given the odds of one in 302,575,350. A 2023 statement from Becker may shed light on this puzzling situation.
She said: “Only legitimate winners know the answers to some of our most important questions during the standard vetting process; it’s one of the ways we determine that the person who claims the prize is, in fact, the rightful winner.”
Although Lahijani is seeking more money, the gas station where he bought the tickets is already celebrating its $1.9 million+ reward for selling them.