{"id":125434,"date":"2020-01-27T11:22:24","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T19:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=125434"},"modified":"2020-01-27T12:21:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T20:21:39","slug":"massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts Lottery \u2018Winner\u2019 Stole $4 Million Ticket from Immigrant Who Thought He\u2019d Won $4,000, Claims Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Massachusetts woman who claimed a $4 million scratch-ticket prize in December 2019 is now accused of exploiting the alleged real winner because he couldn\u2019t speak English.<\/p>\n

\"Massachusetts
When Susana Gaspar claimed her $4 million prize from the Massachusetts Lottery allegedly all was not as it seemed. (Massachusetts State Lottery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Susana Gaspar, of New Bedford, made the local news when she became the second winner of the Massachusetts State Lottery<\/a>\u2019s \u201c$4,000,000 Gold Rush\u201d instant ticket game. But she hit the headlines again this week after becoming the subject of a civil lawsuit that accuses her of conspiring with another woman to steal the ticket from Portuguese immigrant Joao Luis DaPonte.<\/p>\n

DaPonte claims in his lawsuit that he bought the ticket at Caf\u00e9 Sao Paulo in New Bedford. Seeing the \u201c$4 MIL\u201d symbol on the ticket, he believed he had won $4,000, since \u201cmil\u201d translates as \u201cthousand\u201d in Portuguese.<\/p>\n

DaPonte claims he asked Maria Oliveira — also named as a defendant — to cash the ticket for him. He knew she had done the same for others in the past in return for a small percentage<\/a> of the winnings.<\/p>\n

Lost in Translation \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But according the suit, Oliveira took the ticket to Gaspar, her boss at the next-door Goulart Bakery, and the two allegedly concocted a scheme to defraud DaPonte.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of their scheme, the defendant Oliveira provided the ticket to defendant Gaspar so she could sign the ticket and present it to the Lottery Commission for payment,\u201d the suit says.<\/p>\n

Gaspar chose to take the lump sum, which equated to $2.6 million before taxes, and Oliveira gave DaPonte $3,800 in \u201cwinnings,\u201d the filing claims.<\/p>\n

\n

But several days later, DaPonte was shocked to discover that Oliveira\u2019s boss at the bakery had won $4 million on a Gold Rush ticket that had been purchased in the same place he had bought his.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

DaPonte said he showed friends a photocopy he had taken of the ticket before he had handed it over to Oliveira and they explained to him what \u201cmil\u201d meant. The penny finally dropped \u2013 400 million of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that I had been robbed and taken advantage of. This hurt me so much, and I still feel terrible about this whole situation,\u201d DaPonte said, according to the filing.<\/p>\n

‘Doesn\u2019t Add Up:’ Lawyer<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Oliveira has denied that she cashes scratch tickets for others, that she gave DaPonte $3,800, or that she \u201cever received any lottery ticket from Mr. DaPonte at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Gaspar claims she was \u201cduped\u201d by Oliveira into believing the latter had found the ticket and agreed to split the winnings with her.<\/p>\n

Walter P. Faria, an attorney for Gaspar and Oliveira, told The Standard-Times<\/em> that there were certain things about DaPont\u2019s account that didn\u2019t add up, such as that prior to approaching Oliveira with the ticket, he did not actually know her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you hand it to a stranger?\u201d he asked. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine someone else (a friend or family member) didn\u2019t recognize it was $4 million, not $4,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also claims it\u2019s possible that the photocopy of the ticket has been faked.<\/p>\n

The jackpot money is currently being held in an interest-bearing escrow account until the dispute is settled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Massachusetts woman who claimed a $4 million scratch-ticket prize in December 2019 is now accused of exploiting the alleged real winner because he couldn\u2019t speak English. Susana Gaspar, of New Bedford, made the local news when she became the second winner of the Massachusetts State Lottery\u2019s \u201c$4,000,000 Gold Rush\u201d instant ticket game. But she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":125437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,13699],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMassachusetts Lottery \u2018Winner\u2019 Stole $4 Million Ticket, Claims Lawsuit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Joao Luis DaPonte claims Massachusetts State Lottery\u2019s \u201c$4,000,000 Gold Rush\u201d winner Susana Gaspar stole the ticket with employee Maria Oliveira\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Massachusetts Lottery \u2018Winner\u2019 Stole $4 Million Ticket, Claims Lawsuit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joao Luis DaPonte claims Massachusetts State Lottery\u2019s \u201c$4,000,000 Gold Rush\u201d winner Susana Gaspar stole the ticket with employee Maria Oliveira\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-27T19:22:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-27T20:21:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gaspar.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"453\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit\/\",\"name\":\"Massachusetts Lottery \u2018Winner\u2019 Stole $4 Million Ticket, Claims Lawsuit\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gaspar.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-27T19:22:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-27T20:21:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Joao Luis DaPonte claims Massachusetts State Lottery\u2019s \u201c$4,000,000 Gold Rush\u201d winner Susana Gaspar stole the ticket with employee Maria Oliveira\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-winner-stole-4-million-ticket-claims-lawsuit\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gaspar.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gaspar.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":453,\"caption\":\"When Susana Gaspar claimed her $4 million prize from the Massachusetts Lottery all was not, allegedly, as it seemed. 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