Three men have been accused of cheating an undocumented immigrant out of $3 million in lottery winnings, after the victim’s lawyer says his client was convinced by the men that he could not collect his winnings and faced deportation if he came forward.
The name of the man who bought the ticket has not been released, but he says he just wants his winnings and to be left alone.
Atif Ali, 22, Riaz Khan, 45, and Mubeen Ashraf, 22, have been charged with first-degree grand larceny after taking the real winner’s money after convincing him that he would not be allowed to collect his money since he was not in the country legally. The victim was than told he should put the suspects’ names as co-purchasers. They would go on to take the first $150,000 annual payment before selling the rights to the remaining money to a company called Advance Funding for $600,000. The victim received none of this money, and that is when he called a lawyer
The ticket was bought at a convenience store in Spring Valley, New York on February 3, where Ali was working as a store clerk (Khan and Ashraf are former owners of the store).
