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Americo Lopes leaving the courtroom today $10m poorer AP Photo/The Star-Ledger/Frances Micklow/Pool
Nice Try
US lottery winner must pay cheated co-workers $10m
The man had claimed he won the money on a personal ticket – but a jury disagreed.
A JURY HAS found that a New Jersey man who cheated five co-workers out of their share of a lottery jackpot must pay them $2 million (€1.5 million) each.
Americo Lopes worked at a construction company in Elizabeth and began a lottery pool in 2007. He claimed the winning numbers for a 2009 jackpot worth $38.5 million (€29.5 million) were on a personal ticket and not the ticket that he had bought for the pool.
A jury disagreed today.
A spokeswoman for the Superior Court in Elizabeth says each of the five plaintiffs is now entitled to a pre-tax payment of $2 million from the lottery winnings.
The Star-Ledger of Newark reports that Lopes left court saying in Portuguese that he had been robbed.
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