WILMINGTON, Del. — A pair of men who conspired to hide from the tax man that one of them won $500,000 in the lottery were each sentenced to two years of probation Tuesday.
Pennsylvania convenience store owner Charig R. Patel and frequent lottery player Kendrick D. Francis each admitted to conspiracy to defraud the IRS and making a false statement on a tax return in March and faced up to three years in a federal prison.
However, attorneys for each of the men argued to Chief District Judge Gregory M. Sleet that the actions of both were an aberration and society would not be served if the pair were sent to prison. Both Patel and Francis had no significant criminal history and defense attorneys said both were remorseful.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf declined comment.
According to prosecutors, in Feb. 2008, Wilmington resident Francis won a 10,000-to-one bet on the Pennsylvania Lottery's Big 4 game and because he had purchased 360 tickets with the same number — 4177 — he won $532,000.
The problem came when Patel, owner of Conley's Market in Woodlyn, Pa., suggested to Francis that he could help him avoid paying income taxes on the proceeds by having others appear to cash a number of Francis' winning tickets. Francis agreed and paid Patel a $50,000 "fee" to have others cash in about half of his winning tickets.
Patel's attorney, Edmund "Dan" Lyons Jr., said his client did not act out of greed but out of economic necessity as he has been struggling during the recession. Lyons, however, noted that Patel has since paid back the approximately $11,000 that the government said he owed.
Prosecutors had pressed for a more stern sentence for Francis because he has not yet paid the $100,000 he owes. Francis' attorney, John S. Malik, said the lottery winnings are tied up in a house and his client is working to get cash to pay the debt, adding Francis made a $10,000 payment Tuesday.
"Pennsylvania convenience store owner Charig R. Patel ... "
whoa...these ppl.... are bringing a lot of pride to their name .
So much for that scheme of only playing multiples of pick3 and pick4 because as long as each ticket wins less than $600, you can avoid paying taxes on them.
Oh no...busted in PA. It's becoming epidemic.
Pay the taxes and do the right thing, please people. Don't steal or cheat or launder.
The Patel name is being drug through the mud.
In this particular case, if nothing else, the time-codes would have indicated that the tickets were all bought in too short a span to have been bought by different people.
How many store owners named Patel are there?
No doubt. With that kind of circumstance, you couldn't get away with it. I'd be happy turning the tickets in the office and sleeping peacefully at night...
These people, both the players and store owners need to visit LP. You can learn a lot in the lottery news forum, and avoid the traps....
just having the name patel should get you 2 1/2 years from the getgo. i suppose jail wouldn't get the state their money so restitution it is...
This player will be smarter next time and I have little doubt about there being a next time because if he had enough faith to put $360 on a pick4 number and win once, he'll do it again.
I'm glad it wasn't Harddik Patel again!
That reminds me of a Confucius proverb. Confucius say: Man who walk through airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok.
Patel, Patel, Patel, oh those pesty Patels........
The Patel family re-union has been cancelled, due to the fact they are in jail, hehehehe.
another patel
. patel allert
. they should join together and make a store call patel brothers2 . which actualy exsist and sell anything beside lottery .
The guy just won over a half million dollars, and he has the cajones to ask the judge to understand he only committed the crime out of financial hardship. Geez what a moron. If he's that bad at understanding and handling money, it was all gonna be gone in a few months anyway.
family re-union moved to jail.
something strange here, did't notice on the first read. he won 532000 w/ 360 tickets #ed 4177. 532000 div. by 360 =1477.7777 the rounded #1477 is a box of the winning # while the post decimal #s are all 7s, a lucky #.
yea, rj, he would need 3 times as many,360 x 3=1080 tickets to get the win down to $ 492... and he would have to run all over the place buying them at diff. times and places, and if the win was a little bigger that time. curses...foiled again. just pay the taxes.
Anyone wonder why he played the 1477, or how often he spends $360 or whatever at a time? I am stuck on playing the sum of 5 right now, boxed. You can box 0.50-5.00 on a ticket, so I box them for 1.50 per ticket to avoid going over $600, should it hit (4 of them are a double number, paying $200). The two sums that would pay $600 boxed(two triples), I play them three times for 0.50. I figure my stuff out before I play big! Nothing goes right for that family LOL
i don't play the 3s & 4S, did't realize you could figure the payout ahead of time,can't do this on pick 5 sometimes the 2nd prize is $542.00,sometimes it's $611.00 or somesuch, maybe his did't figure right before he bought tickets ?
For the 4 digit, it's a set payout.
0.50 str8 gets you 2,500
boxed for 0.50 get you:
100.00 eg 1234
200.00 eg 1123
400.00 eg 1122
600.00 eg 1112
On our pick 5, cash five game (5/43), it's different as well, depending on the number of winners for 4/5
On our pick 5, treasure hunt game (5/30), it's set at 100.00 for 4/5
so you have 2, pick5 games,learn something every day.
The judge could have given them 3 years in prison but he didn't.
He gave them 2 years probation.
Ooooooooh, scary!
That'll certainly scare all the criminals away from lottery crime!
Somewhere, the Patels are laughing.