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Mich. lottery winner who kept collecting welfare found deadNews Story
A Lincoln Park, Michigan, woman who won $1 million in the Michigan Lottery and was later convicted for still collecting state welfare died Saturday from an apparent drug overdose. Ecorse Police confirmed Saturday afternoon that Amanda Clayton, of Lincoln Park, was found dead at a residence on Sunnyside Street at 9 a.m. Shortly after winning the lottery in March, Clayton's story garnered national media attention when she revealed she was still collecting $5,500 from the state in food aid an
Sep 29, 2012, 10:24 pm - Lottery News

Pa. man pleads guilty in bizarre lottery tax caseNews Story
A 70-year-old Pennsylvania man faces up to a year and half in prison for having more than 40 people cash in lottery tickets worth $520,000 so he could avoid paying federal income tax on the winnings. Sherman Friend, of McClellandtown, faces a sentence of 12 to 18 months in federal prison when he is sentenced Feb. 15 on the tax evasion charge he pleaded guilty to Friday before U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab in Pittsburgh. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nelson Cohen said Friend won big when he b
Sep 28, 2012, 12:45 pm - Lottery News

Online poker sites settle U.S. lawsuit for $731 millionNews Story
The Department of Justice announced a $731 million settlement Tuesday with online poker companies PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker to resolve bank fraud and money laundering allegations. Full Tilt also resolved allegations that it operated a Ponzi scheme, failing to maintain sufficient funds on deposit for players to withdraw. Prosecutors said last year that Full Tilt had used more than $400 million worth of player funds to pay board members and other owners since 2007. As part of Tuesday's
Aug 1, 2012, 6:42 am - Lottery News

Mich. lottery winner to plead guilty to felony firearm chargesNews Story
Man previously under fire for claiming welfare benefits after lottery win A Williams Township, Michigan, man who had nearly $1 million in cash two years ago and is now destitute and charged with four firearm-related felonies is set to accept a plea deal in Bay County Circuit Court. Leroy N. Fick, 60, is scheduled to make his plea before Circuit Judge Kenneth W. Schmidt at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 4. Court records show that prosecutors have offered to dismiss two counts of felony firearm if Fick
Jul 26, 2012, 8:38 am - Lottery News

Michigan lottery winner convicted of welfare fraud gets probationNews Story
The Lincoln Park, Michigan, woman who made national headlines for continuing to accept food stamp benefits after winning $1 million on a Michigan Lottery game show was sentenced today in Wayne County Circuit Court to nine months of probation. Amanda Clayton, 25, won the money on the show Make me Rich! last year and took home more than $700,000 after taxes. She was charged in April with two felony counts of welfare fraud failure to inform for not alerting the state Department of Human Services
Jul 24, 2012, 4:51 pm - Lottery News

UK Lottery winner jailed for benefit fraudNews Story
A man who won nearly 5 million (US$7.8 million) in the UK National Lottery, but fraudulently claimed about 13,000 (US$20,200) in benefits, has been jailed for nine months. Edward Putman, 46, who was convicted of rape in 1993, won the life-changing sum in September 2009. But he continued applying for housing benefit and income support and even wrote to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and his local council claiming he was broke and could not even afford to eat. In reality he wa
Jul 24, 2012, 10:13 am - Lottery News

Internet poker owner handed 14-month prison termNews Story
An owner of Absolute Poker, one of the three largest Internet poker companies, was sentenced to 14 months in prison on Monday after admitting to deceiving banks over the processing of gambling proceeds. Brent Beckley, 32, joined Costa Rica-based Absolute Poker in 2003 and became its head of payment processing. Last December, he pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiring to break U.S. laws against gambling on the Internet. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit
Jul 23, 2012, 9:23 pm - Lottery News

12 arrested in conspiracy to rig Mexico lottery drawingNews Story
Twelve people, including four public employees, are accused of attempting to embezzle 160 million pesos ($12.1 million) from Mexico's national lottery, authorities said. Around $8 million of the money has been recovered, the Attorney General's Office and several other federal agencies said in a joint statement. The announcement followed a front-page story in capital daily Reforma that revealed some details of the scheme to rig the Jan. 22 drawing. Four directors of state-owned lottery a
Jul 20, 2012, 9:12 am - Lottery News

N.C. man charged with stealing $1M lottery ticketNews Story
By Todd Northrop Less than two weeks after a North Carolina community college student smiled for the cameras and cashed in on a winning $1 million lotto ticket, police say it wasn't hers to claim. It's honestly just luck, Mikala Fields said as she accepted her prize July 2. You actually can win. But luck had nothing to do with it, according to a North Carolina Education Lottery investigation. The Lottery accused Fields of conspiring with her husband, Sean Mewherter, who works at the l
Jul 12, 2012, 11:24 am - Lottery News

CEO of poker site Full Tilt arrestedNews Story
The chief executive of Full Tilt Poker, the beleaguered one-time Web poker giant, was arrested Monday on a plane that had just landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport as the government unveiled new criminal charges against him related to an alleged Ponzi scheme. Ray Bitar, 40 years old, is the most significant person yet to turn himself into the Justice Department's 15-month-long effort to prosecute the three one-time leading online poker companies in the U.S. He pleaded not guilty in
Jul 3, 2012, 11:21 am - Lottery News