A father and his daughter were each fined $2.3 million for their roles in an insider lottery scam.
Jun-Chul Chung, 68, and his daughter, Kathleen Chung, 36, were handed the hefty fines last week by Justice Douglas Gray.
Chung was convicted of stealing a $12.5 million Super 7 ticket from a 2003 drawing, while his daughter falsely claimed the winnings and was convicted of possession of stolen property and defrauding the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.
Chung stole the free play ticket in 2003 from its rightful owners who validated the ticket at the Chung-managed Variety Plus store in Burlington, Ont. He then gave the ticket to Kathleen to claim in an attempt to cover his tracks.
(See Canadian family charged with stealing $12.5M lottery jackpot, Lottery Post, Sep. 30, 2010.)
If the Chungs default, they'll have to spend six more years in prison: The patriarch was sentenced to seven years in prison and his daughter was jailed for a four-year term last September.
"I see no reason why they should not be equally responsible for the outstanding amount ($4.6 million)," wrote Justice Gray.
"I do not agree that all of the responsibility should be placed on Jun-Chul Chung," added the judge. "The lottery funds were made out to Kathleen Chung and she was an active participant in securing the funds from the OLGC."
The Crown already seized almost $8 million in assets in commercial properties and luxury vehicles from the father and daughter, so the prosecution sought fines to make up for the $4.6 million balance.
Kathleen's brother Kenneth Chung, 35, ran Variety Plus in Burlington where his father worked part-time. Both father and son were found guilty in April of stealing lottery tickets during an eight-month period ending in February 2004.
Kenneth Chung only received a 10-month sentence because the judge concluded he played no role in the winning jackpot ticket theft.
The father and daughter, who are on bail, pending appeal, have seven years to pay the fines. The seven-year period starts after the Chungs have been paroled.
In 2011, the OLGC was able to track down the rightful winners of the $12.5 million Super 7 jackpot and paid them the massive prize. The winners were seven friends and former co-workers who lay cable for a living, each of whom received $2.1 million. The jackpot had accumulated $2.3 million in interest in the long stretch of time after the 2003 drawing, resulting in a total payout of $14.8 million.
(Click to display full-size in gallery)
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Don't let anyone check your tickets. Check them yourself online.
More than 14 years later the Canadian Chung Crime Family: that Stole together: Now goes to Jail together!
Wonderful law enforcement by Canadians.
"The winners were seven friends and former co-workers who lay cable for a living, each of whom received $2.1 million. The jackpot had accumulated $2.3 million in interest in the long stretch of time after the 2003 drawing, resulting in a total payout of $14.8 million."
The lottery even paid them interest on the money until they received the payout! WOW!
I wonder what their fortune cookie says.......
Suppose they don't complete restitution? Certainly a good chunk of the money is gone.
Despite that, kudos to Canadian justice system. No smiles in these photos, just the look of stupid crooks.
Wow, Canada does not play games. Kinda reminds me of when people were arrested for pot in this country at one time.
LOL Bleu, IKR!(i know right...) smdh ...
Yep.
No smiles this time, even if in U.K,Canada, to the good ole' U.S.A., some women and men literally,
actually smile! (for their latest mug shots...)or walking in and out of court, odd, but it is what it is..."
I doubt they shall ever implement paying all their high restitution back.
yep. smh. wow. amazing how some think ya know, Meatman 2005. But, for this amount, the crooks "feel in their own mind" it's worth it.
Even was "paid interest" as they awaited such $$$ cash payout! the check etc. smh.
I'd like to propose adding Jun-chul's sad face photo to the LP avatar gallery.
Canada did right by the victims. Wonder how the U.S. Justice system would have handled it. Always check your tickets on line or use the self scanner. Never leave it up the store clerk to check.
I like how this is for a game that no longer exists now. Nowadays, that game has been replaced with Lotto MAX.
.
Mr. Jackpotismine,
That's what I do, every single time. I can't afford not to.
I will NEVER:
Some of which, if I'm suspicious of previous scans having missed something,
I'll re-scan the next time around. I sure would hate to miss a prize of any amount.
I always look to the Asians as an example, both in character, and honesty to the rest of the world.
So, it's really sad to even imagine this happening.
Even this next guy whom I've personally witnessed years ago:
An Asian man at a Baccarat table, plunking down $5000 (yes, five thousand dollars). That's 5 orange chips for each
bet at a time. I don't even play baccarat myself, but this guy was something to watch.
AND, HE LITERALLY COULDN'T WAIT, to make the next bet. It was about 8 tables in this pool of Baccarat games. This guy was just going around playing his $5000/bet and then win or lose, and go right to the next table. As if this or that table was luckier or something.
I seen this guy do this until he was eventually holding no more orage chips.
I'm shocked, and wrinkling my still un-played $50 in my pocket, I'd been saving for poker, upstairs, but watching this guy was better than playing in ANY darn poker game, around here, where we're ALL dirt-poor. OK?
But get this:
A little later, I happened to notice an empty Baccarat table where the Asian may have played earlier, and I asked the nice-looking dealer sitting there, about the gentleman literally throwing thousands at the game. She looked around, and then said: "I don't see him now, but yeah, he blew at least $70K earlier." I was shocked again!
I had to sit down on at a slot machine stool, till my brain recovered from that news.
The guy had played a new Corvette in one afternoon (how much he'd won/lost, idk).
According to the dealer, that was before I saw him blow more than I've ever made in a year.
It was around 2013/2014.
Mr. Groppo
In the elevator @ Borgata New Years Eve an Asian woman got on. We were talking about not winning anything. Poor thing looked exhausted and said she lost $56K the night before.
Always check your own tickets; too many dishonest folks out there!
As someone who has worked/lived in South Korea and China for a number of years, your comment "I always look to the Asians as an example, both in character, and honesty to the rest of the world" strikes me as rather a giant assumption. From my personal experiences (17 years and counting) I have not noticed any greater (or less) character development or honesty than in most other parts of the world or other races. And I can assure you there are a sizable number of people like myself who can tell you the same based on THEIR experiences as well.