A man who claims he is the rightful winner of the largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history has filed a lawsuit claiming someone stole the lucky ticket from him.
In the 13-page lawsuit, Jose Rivera claims he bought his Powerball ticket Nov. 7 from Joe's Service Center in Altadena. The next day, a ticket purchased at the store east of Los Angeles matched all numbers in the drawing for the $2 billion jackpot.
Earlier this month, the California Lottery identified the winner as Edwin Castro.
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Castro and a mystery man named 'Reggie' are named as defendants in Rivera's lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges 'Reggie' stole the ticket from Rivera on the day it was purchased.
The lawsuit seeks damages and a declaration that Rivera is the winner of the historic jackpot.
Rivera said he reported the allegations to the California Lottery, which provided NBCLA with a statement Thursday.
"The California Lottery is not authorized to investigate criminal activity among its players; such allegations are subject to investigation only by local law enforcement," said Carolyn Becker, CA Lottery spokesperson. "Should a local law enforcement agency investigate such allegations, Lottery’s only role is to assist in the matter by answering questions and/or providing evidence as allowed under the law.
"Further, when it comes to the vetting process for big winners, California Lottery has the utmost confidence in its process for doing so. California Lottery remains confident that Edwin Castro is the rightful winner of the $2.04 billion prize stemming from the Powerball drawing in November of 2022."
Big jackpot win claims are subject to a thorough review by the California Lottery that involves a background check with specific questions.
"Even when someone comes forward, the California Lottery doesn't publicly announce or acknowledge it until that claimant is thoroughly reviewed and vetted by our security and law enforcement division," Becker told NBCLA in an earlier interview about the vetting process.
The investigation involves a background check with specific questions. For example, everyone knows where a winning ticket was sold, but not everyone knows what day or time. Was it a quick pick or custom number? Was there one ticket on the pay slip or multiple?
"Those are things we don't publicize with a big win, like the one in Altadena, because the eventual winner needs to corroborate those facts," Becker said. "Sadly, we do get people trying to scam us. Even manipulating a ticket. We have security measures on every ticket, whether it's a draw game or Scratchers that we don't talk about publicly because those are our secret sauce to identifying an actual winning ticket."
The jackpot winner's name is public record, according to California public disclosure laws. The winner of the $2 billion jackpot declined to participate in media interviews or appear publicly, but provided a statement read by lottery officials at a Valentine's Day news conference.
