ELIZABETH, N.J. — For one New Jersey lottery winner looking to keep a Mega Millions jackpot all to himself, luck ran out today.
Americo Lopes, who took home a $24 million jackpot three years ago, must surrender $20 million of that bounty to five former coworkers after a civil jury found he cheated the men out of their rightful share of the winnings.
On Nov. 10, 2009, two winning Mega Millions tickets were claimed from a $77 million jackpot, one of which Lopes had, leaving him with $38.5 million. He chose a lump sum and received $24 million after taxes.
(See NJ man sued over $38.5M lottery ticket, Lottery Post, Mar. 14, 2012.)
The verdict in Superior Court in Elizabeth sparked a joyous celebration by the successful plaintiffs, who jumped to their feet and embraced one another, smiles on their faces. Each was awarded $4 million, or about $2 million after taxes and attorneys' fees.
"I feel like I could cheer," said one of the men, Candido Silva Sr. "I believe justice prevailed today."
There was little to celebrate for Lopes, 52, who quickly shuffled past his one-time friends — all construction workers originally from Portugal — and out of the courtroom.
Nearing the elevator, he spoke quietly in Portuguese.
"They robbed me," he said.
His wife, Margarida, shared in the sentiment.
"Justice was not served today," she said.
The case, decided unanimously by an eight-person jury, marked the latest cautionary tale involving lottery pools, pacts often based on trust and a handshake.
The men worked together at Berto Construction Inc. in Elizabeth, where they started playing the lottery together in 2007. Lopes organized the pools two or three times a month, typically when jackpots were large, and collected $2 from each man to buy the tickets. When Lopes hit the Mega Millions winner in November 2009, the men sued, claiming he won with a pool ticket and then cut them out of the winnings.
Lopes, for his part, insisted the winning ticket was his own, paid for with his own money. As proof, he pointed to the winning numbers, which he said he used only for personal picks and never used when playing with the pool.
As they awaited the verdict today, the five friends sat together, their attorneys pacing the sun-bathed courtroom on the 14th floor.
The four-day trial ended when the jury knocked to deliver its verdict after 2 1/2 hours of deliberations. At $20 million, the jury award is believed to be one of the largest in Union County history.
Lopes' attorney, Michael Mezzacca, said he was disappointed by the ruling.
"There are innocent people sent to jail for crimes they didn't commit by the same standard of reasonable doubt this jury used," Mezzacca said. "The fact is that Mr. Lopes won the lottery by himself with his own money and numbers that he picked."
The case was based mostly on testimony from the five plaintiffs and a collection of lottery tickets gathered from Lopes' home.
Eric Kahn and Rubin Sinins, lawyers for the plaintiffs, used the same collection of tickets to show that out of 1,090 times Lopes played, he spent only $12 on 12 numbers the day of the jackpot, an indication he was playing for the pool, which always bought 12 numbers.
Lopes' behavior after the win became a critical component of the case. He told his boss he wouldn't be returning to work because he needed foot surgery, which he never received, and denied winning the jackpot. He also filed for unemployment benefits after claiming the prize.
Also important was testimony from a sixth construction worker, uninvolved in the lawsuit, who said the men gave Lopes money to play the day of the winning drawing.
"Today shows that when you tell the truth, good things happen," Kahn said. "There were a lot of untruths told in this case, but these guys prevailed."
Long before the lawsuit, the six men, who where known at work as the B6 crew, would spend early morning car rides to construction sites daydreaming about what they would do if they won the lottery.
Today, those possibilities came rushing back.
Candido Silva Jr. said he's putting his two children through college. Carlos Fernandes will buy his newborn granddaughter "a present she will remember," and Candido Silva Sr. said he's paying off his house in Hillside and then planning a trip to Portugal for the five men to celebrate.
Three of the men said they will return to work at Berto.
"The money isn't going to be so, so much once we find out what's available," Candido Silva Jr. said. "It's more a victory for us, for what he did to us."
The men said they will continue to play the lottery as a group, but from now on, all tickets will be photocopied.
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There's some bad math in this article or I'm just not getting it. If the guy took the cash option which was $24,000,000 after taxes and now has to split it six ways that would be $4,000,000 per person. While I understand there may be attorney fees why would they have to pay taxes on the $4,000,000 individual portions as the taxes were already paid on the $24,000,000. This must be wrong so I'll assume each guy is probably getting about $3,900,000 as it's not going to be over $500,000 for the five to have received reprsentation. Either way good for them and just another cautionary tale of why you don't get involved in a lotto pool.
WOW!!!!! OK so the numbers that Lopes played were self picked not quick picks correct? So I guess I am wondering were the other tickets purchased by the group QP or picked #?
Can ANYONE here in LP do a search and give us a STATISTIC of how many lottery pools have gone WRONG?
I'm curious to know how many lottery pools have won over the years and how many resulted in some sort of lawsuit.
Didnt we just see this episode? The woman who won was still getting foodstamps. Now this man wins and files for unemployment.....
Greed Greed Greed
Why would you cut out people who put money in the pool with you? And then say justice wasnt served?
Kudos to the 5 men
Looks like this came down to "personal integrity"....The winning ticket COULD have been his personal choice...but that little part about, "He told his boss he wouldn't be returning to work because he needed foot surgery, which he never received, and denied winning the jackpot. He also filed for unemployment benefits after claiming the prize." kind of sets the stage in my humble opinion. A smart sneaky man would have kept his mouth shut, had a close friend/relative make the claim and moved to Costa Rica....OH WELL, he still has his share left...maybe
Whether it was his ticket or not, the lesson of today is , don't join Lottery Pools, not in today's day and age
[O]ut of 1,090 times Lopes played, he spent only $12 on 12 numbers the day of the jackpot, an indication he was playing for the pool, which always bought 12 numbers.
Well, that's easy enough to figure out.
[T]he jury knocked to deliver its verdict after 2 1/2 hours of deliberations.
Unless they had to look through all 1,090 tickets, that's 2 1/4 hours longer than this needed to take.
"Looks like this came down to "personal integrity"....The winning ticket COULD have been his personal choice...but that little part about, "He told his boss he wouldn't be returning to work because he needed foot surgery, which he never received, and denied winning the jackpot."
Keep it simple, buy your own tickets!
I bought my own Mega Millions ticket last nite. $3 on quick picks .....................
Grey Violet is goooooooooooood!
I just have to share it with my non-estranged wife!
Sounds to me like those were his personal numbers, but he stole pool money to play them. So they belong to the pool.
He certainly did not look very happy. they ran the story on the news. He shouldn't have tried to cheat his friends.
That gray violet is an absolutely beautiful color!! Can't see really clear on my phone but assuming its a Bentley? I'll proally grab one after my win on Friday ;-) I as well got $3 in quick picks (and then my personal numbers)
He could have saved himself a lot of grief by giving the numbers on the group tickets by email or by phone so that everyone in the group would have a copy of the numbers before the draws. That way, his own tickets were just that.
Considering all his actions, I suspect that the right decision was probably made.
He has probally spent his share already.. What a jerk.. cheating his friends... LOSER !!!
Just a sampling. Probably more out there. 10 page just on that word search.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=yhs-avg-chrome&type=yahoo_avg_hs2-tb-web_chrome_us&p=+lottery+pool+lawsuits+filed
only 5 people not split with their lawyer.
Your so right "mightwin"...if you want to win just buy your own tickets .. The Mrs. and i would take a ride to R.I. to play powerball in the early 90's .We are from city island in bronx,n.y. ...people would always ask if we could pick you tickets for them ...Its just under three hour ride ..Ididn't want to be mean but i said come along for the ride .All of them said no.OK...Now in 1995 powerball comes to CT...We wouldtake a ride into CT. to around exit 40 or 41 on I95 the Christmas Tree store..Again people would say please pick up tickits for them .I said come for a ride .Ididn't even ask for gas money or anything .people just said no ..I know i got off the track a little but like "mightwin" said just buy your own tickets...I was in a lotto pool at work and it was all nothing but trouble..It got nuts..We were all from the maintenice department of a big hospital but the head of the pool kept adding people al the time ...He added the guy from the deli across the street from the hospital ..,the crossing guard lady from down the block, two ladys from the check cashing place next door ..So i opt out..Funny thing ..They hit for 5 grand and boy did the poop hit the fan ...Who didnt want to pay taxs ,Who wanted the annual payment...Well looks like i got out just in time.SORRY BUT I HATE LOTTO POOLS
All that RUCKUS over 5 grand so you can see why things get so hysterical over a JACKPOT. Heed the warning LP Members
Annual payment on 5 grand?? Not 5 million?
I think once a pool gets near a dozen, 2 dozen max, it's time to break it into 2 smaller groups.
A JP divided by 40-50 people isn't going to be much fun, plus you know the manager of that pool would spend way too much time on paper pushing ... if they're doing things right.
I was in a pool of 20 co-workers before I retired and played the Ohio Super Lotto. We matched 5of6 for $1500 three times and had the same problem about taxes since the player claiming the prize had to pay the taxes.
We settled that problem by paying a member's kid attending college and earning too little to pay taxes to cash our winning tickets. They not only got what we paid them but a refund of the taxes deducted when they cashed our ticket.
Very smart !
Here's the useful quote from the article: "The case ... marked the latest cautionary tale involving lottery pools, pacts often based on trust and a handshake.
The lesson from this is that contracts should be in writing, and they should be written by somebody who's not an idiot. Despite some hassles along the way there are at least 5 players who wouldn't have "won" if they hadn't been in a pool. I put "won" in quotation marks because there's only one person who really knows if the winning ticket was originally intended for the pool or if it really was Lopes' personal ticket. Either way, they got the money as a result of playing in a pool.
A written contract could have easily spelled out the rules and made it obvious wheter the ticket was personal or for the pool. That might have let Lopes keep it all, and it would almost certainly have saved them all the legal fees.
A few years back there were on average about 13 to 16 of us in the clinic I worked in at the time that used to pool our money together when PB and MM would get close to $200M. I was usually one of the two people that would go around and collect money from participants, obtaining signatures along with the amount of money that they wanted to bet. Most we ever won was around $17 lol, but it was still a fun project to work on and I am sure as hell glad that we never won the jackpot... because in truth we would have been ill prepared to deal with the win.
If we won, what about the player that played the week before, but did not place a bet this week because of illness or vacation? Looking back, I think we should have included them, regardless of missing a bet.
Personally I had planned to give everyone in the pool $1 Million each if my personal set of numbers won, but how would I have felt if someone else from the pool had won with their own set of numbers and not offered to share with the others? Not happy, but at the same time it is well within their right to do with their money as they please.
In the past, I would have done things far differently and established a clear set of rules that every participant would agree on and sign before entering the pool, I would have even gone as far to get the document stamped by a Public Notary. Knowing what I know now, I probably will never enter into another lottery pool, seems like too much of a headache if your group wins. For now I just play my own sets of numbers and I don't promise anyone anything if I win.
They used to call that purple.
Exactamundo!
Pools are a hassle and compared to individuals, they rarely win.
Another problem is you're usually in the pool with a bunch of tightwad skinflints and miserly cheapskates who pinch pennies so hard they have Lincoln spinning in his grave in agony. That's the kind of people pools attract.
And you know what happens when one of those tightwads misses a drawing and the pool wins - it's sleazy lawyer time.
Avoid pools just like you'd avoid the cheapskates that like them.