Massachusetts man sues 2 women, claiming they cheated him out of $4 million lottery prize

Comment #20

river26 — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 23:32:34 GMT

any time when it comes to money your own family will also screw u. nevermind just friends friends will screw u everytime never never trust no one

Comment #19

db101 — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:08:59 GMT

Oh please. Daponte sold his ticket to a shady middleman instead of redeeming it at a lottery office as lottery regulations require. If he hadn't attempted to skirt around the rules he wouldn't have been scammed. I think people would be a lot more outraged if he had been scammed by an employee at the lottery office.

Comment #18

NativeSlew67 — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 17:39:19 GMT

I totally agree with your comment. His story should be able to be verified via the camera surveillance system to see WHO purchased the winning ticket. Additionally, he also had a picture in his mobile phone with time and date stamped of the winning ticket apparently. I believe this guy. I also believe he genuinely thought that he had only won 4K due to a language barrier. Some of these comments are quite hateful and disingenuous due to whatever conflicts people feel towards non English speakers.... [ More ]

Comment #17

Murgatroyd — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 00:47:58 GMT

He could understand if he won. The ticket said quite clearly that he'd won 4,000. It just didn't occur to him at the time that MIL stood for something different in English.

Comment #16

db101 — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 00:35:42 GMT

Daponte just needs to get her past clients to corroborate. But they don't want to be exposed so the battle is uphill for him.

Comment #15

Plug1776 — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 16:53:23 GMT

The tickets should have a tracking system. Every time a store opens a new roll they have to scan it in. They should be able to track it back to the store that sold it and check camera footage unless it was sold at her store and she got rid of the footage.

Comment #14

MillionsWanted — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 10:33:22 GMT

Might be hard to find out who's trying to fool who.

Comment #13

ekem6078 — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 04:06:55 GMT

Stupid is, as Stupid does. Why in the world would you buy a ticket, that you couldn't understand if you won or not. I mean really.

Comment #12

Coin Toss — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 03:35:41 GMT

I always wondered if this was about Bristol, Mass., Connecticut or Tennessee..........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CinviAVC5jY

Somebody paraphrase it to

The chicks in Bristol don't need a pistol.......

Comment #11

noise-gate — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 03:22:28 GMT

Luis should have contacted Clarance Jones, from Massachusetts- you know the 80 year old who pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit tax fraud and filing false tax returns in connection with a scheme in which he bought winning Lottery tickets at a discount in order to help the real winners avoid paying taxes on the prizes. Clarance had a track record. l guess Luis was looking in the wrong place, after all finding an honest crook is never too far. This could have been Jones's Last Crusade.

Comment #10

Stack47 — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 02:38:16 GMT

DaPonte does not read or speak English

Reminds me of the clerk I asked to give me a PB ticket with powerplay today and even placed $3 on the counter. They handed me three tickets, one with powerplay and two without. Apparently it took them three tries before they got it right.

He later asked New Bedford resident Maria Oliveira, one of the named defendants, to cash the ticket for him, since he knew she had cashed out scratch tickets for other people in the past and kept a percentage of the

Comment #9

noise-gate — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 00:32:25 GMT

Luis is hiding something. For all we know, he could have had a fling with Maria, after some serious R R, he confides in her, telling her that he bagged a couple of grand. Maria, realizing that Luis is not the brightest crayon in the box decided to speak to Susana about the situation.

The first rule of thumb: If you residing in a foreign country- learn the language. In visiting Puerto Vallarta a few years back, l was surprised to see a Chinese storekeeper speaking Spanish, but hey.

** Live

Comment #8

Unluckyone — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 00:21:35 GMT

This guy has no one to blame but himself. He is in a foreign country for crying out loud, learn to assimilate by learning English or risk being a victim again. How does he even drive if he doesn't understand English

Comment #7

cottoneyedjoe — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 00:02:39 GMT

Based on the article it looks like a he-said-she-said case because it seems these women -- if they did indeed do what DaPonte alleges -- were smart enough not to leave a trail. My instinct says they probably did swindle him, but good luck to him proving it.

At least his $3800 can buy him some of those fancy Rosetta Stone CDs and some in person English classes. I'm guessing Gaspar and Oliveira are also from Brazil, but were sensible enough to learn English.

Comment #6

Drenick1 — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 23:49:16 GMT

Horrible that there are predators who prey on people like him. Going forward, he may want to learn the English language as well as how to read and write or he may just lose another large chunk of $$$ that they froze on his behalf.

Comment #5

Bleudog101 — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 23:28:18 GMT

To top it off, the Mayor of New Bedford is a very shady individual and despite indictments kept getting paid and they wouldn't even change the locks to keep him out of office.

Comment #4

islandgirl5 — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 23:23:44 GMT

He got conned out of his money by trash people like this that take advantage of someone that doesn't know the language or someone that can't read. I hope he wins his case and gets his money.

Comment #3

music* — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 22:16:29 GMT

with you TheMeatman2005. I hope that Daponte wins in court.

How much will the lawyers earn? Nothing if he loses. If they are on contingincy.

Comment #2

hearsetrax — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 22:12:49 GMT

What a surprise......

Comes to America and gets ripped off cause hes a dumb arse

Comment #1

TheMeatman2005 — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 20:35:05 GMT

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive! (Sir Walter Scott, 1808).

Massachusetts man sues 2 women, claiming they cheated him out of $4 million lottery prize

Lottery Post — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 19:24:52 GMT

A Massachusetts man says two women cheated him out of $4 million in lottery winnings by taking advantage of his inability to read or speak English.

The man, Joao Luis DaPonte, said in a civil complaint filed earlier this month in Bristol Superior Court that when he initially scratched the Lottery ticket he purchased at Cafe Sao Paulo on Bolton Street in New Bedford on Nov. 23, he believed he had won $4,000 since the ticket said $4MIL below the number 26.

DaPonte does not read or speak Engl... [ More ]