3 Men Charged in Long Island Lottery Scam

John Mitty Thursday, May 9, 2013

When 28 year old Marvin Choy Nij won the lottery, he took his ticket to a Riverside gas station on March 18^th to redeem his winnings.  Nij is from Guatemala and did not read or speak English.  When the three men working at the counter realized this, they robbed the man of nearly $75,000, paying him only $774 of his Take Five lottery prize, instead of the $74,892 that he had actually won.  Instead, the three men claimed the rest of his prize money for themselves.  Orhan Ozturk, 47, Yunis Ozturk, 33, and Yalcin Nergiz, 41, cashed the winning ticket themselves and split $48,000 after taxes.  There is no word yet on whether Nij has been able to reclaim the money due to him.

After the theft, the New York Lottery authorities advised the public on how to avoid similar scams in the future.  Lottery winners should sign their tickets, check how much their tickets are worth before they hand them in to redeem their prizes, and should also be aware that gas stations like the Valero where Nij bought his ticket cannot hand out more than $600 in lottery winnings.  If you win a lottery which is worth more than $600, you need to take your ticket to the lottery’s customer service center and redeem it there. 

jmitty@longislandyellowpages.com

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