The California lottery claimed he was the rightful owner of two tickets that won two Mega Million Jackpot Awards, but the ticket that lost one was not in the second half of the nearly $400 million pot.
Faramarturahijani's quest to be awarded a $394 million jackpot from December 8, 2023 faced another setback in court on Monday as lawyers drilled holes in his claims.
The lawyers representing California, California Lottery and California Lottery Committee alleged that Rahijani's story was not correlated with the facts of the case and did not follow the rules when requesting the award.
“Paying for Mega Millions Awards without submitting a valid victory ticket is expressly prohibited by Mega millions of game rules and applicable California laws and regulations,” the attorney said in court documents filed Monday and obtained. San Bernardino San.
The California Attorney General's Office argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because of the game's requirements, the outlet reported.
Rahijani sued the lottery for breach of contract on December 4, 2024, claiming that he purchased two lottery tickets using the same number at a gas station in Encino, California.
He said he used the same numbers 21, 26, 53, 66, 70 and Gold Megaball 13 for the decades that his children chose them.
Rahijani publicly advanced one lottery ticket in June 2024, claiming half the jackpot shared, winning $197.5 million worth.
Rahijani remained silent about his missing ticket ownership until December 4th, when he filed his claims in the state lottery, three days before the deadline for claiming the award.
He then filed a breach of contract lawsuit on December 6th.
“The plaintiff is entitled to the entire jackpot due to his timely filing of his first matching ticket,” his lawyer argued in the suit.
Court records confirmed that Rahijani had no tickets and essentially nullified the possibility of seeing the remaining $195 million in accordance with lottery rules.
Despite the unknown legitimate ownership of the missing ticket, the drawings for December 2023 featured two jackpot winners purchased at Encino Chevron on Ventura Boulevard.
The gas station was awarded the largest record bonus of over $1.9 million given to one retailer in California's lottery history.
In Golden State, retailers selling tickets over $1 million have earned a bonus of half the 1% of their prize money up to $1 million.
Chevron earned a $987,500 bonus from each award ticket sold, totaling $1.975 million.
A repeated hearing was scheduled for October 29th, but could be cancelled if Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Leah Martin moves to dismiss the case.
