Trio Accused Of Stealing $12.5 Million Lotto Ticket
Posted September 29, 2010 8:16 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Three members of a GTA family have been granted bail after they allegedly defrauded the rightful owner out of a $12.5 million lottery win. The trio has been charged, the OPP said Wednesday, and investigators are trying to track down the rightful owner of the winning ticket.
Authorities claim a father and son were stealing lottery tickets from customers at the Burlington convenience store where they worked. One of them – a free ticket belonging to a customer – ended up being a $12.5 million Super 7 winner after a Dec. 26, 2003 draw.
In order to distance themselves from the alleged fraud police claim they got a female family member to claim the prize. The millions were collected in December 2004.
Authorities executed search warrants and seized two mansions, five luxury vehicles, three businesses, bank accounts, jewellery and electronics belonging to the Chungs. They figure they have recovered about $10 million of the total.
The charges include:
-Fraud over $5,000
-Possession under $5,000
-Possession over $5,000 (proceeds of crime)
-Money laundering
Kathleen Chung, 29, of Oakville, 60-year-old Jun-Chul Chung and 28-year-old Kenneth Chung, both from Thornhill, are charged.
In a Milton court on Wednesday, Kathleen Chung was released on $500,000 bail. The other two were freed on $100,000 each. Under the terms of the deal, they are not allowed contact with each other.
“The OPP is committed to bring to justice those who would victimize people by defrauding them of their rightful lottery winnings,” OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis said in a statement. “We are also optimistic that publicizing information about this investigation will help us to identify the victim of this $12.5-million fraud.”
The winning ticket came from a Variety Plus in Burlington and, according to tracking technology, may belong to a group. The owner(s) also bought and cashed in several other lottery tickets in St. Catharines and Burlington.
Former convenience store owner Hafiz Malik was sentenced to a year in jail last June for fraudulently claiming a customer’s $5.7 million ticket.
Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin released a scathing report in 2007 outlining “rampant fraud” and called on the province to ban store owners from purchasing lottery tickets at their own outlets. The OLG put the rule in effect in April 2009.
A forensic audit of the OLG in February 2009 indicated lottery insiders had won $198 million over 13 years.
With files from the Canadian Press
Meanwhile, it was more bad news for the OLG Wednesday night as many of its lottery machines across the GTA went down for several hours.
This meant many customers were unable to purchase or check tickets.
Lottery officials say the problem was a network system failure, and they are working with their system provider to figure out what went wrong.
They say Wednesday’s Lotto 6-49 draw will go ahead as planned.
