{"id":301691,"date":"2023-12-04T16:36:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T22:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=301691"},"modified":"2023-12-09T13:54:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T19:54:41","slug":"2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket\/","title":{"rendered":"$2B Powerball \u2018Pretender\u2019 Will \u2018Go to War\u2019 for Winning Ticket"},"content":{"rendered":"

A California man who claims to be the rightful owner of the world\u2019s biggest lottery jackpot has vowed to continue his fight for the $2 billion prize he claims was stolen from him.<\/p>\n

\"Jose
Jose Rivera is interviewed by The US Sun<\/em> on the steps of a Pasadena courtroom Friday. He promised to \u201cfight until the end\u201d for \u201cjustice.\u201d (Image: Ruaridh Connellan\/The US Sun<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jose Rivera was speaking publicly for the first time since he sued<\/a> winner Edwin Castro<\/a> and his former landlord Urachi F. Romero. Rivera claims Romero stole the ticket from him and then blackmailed him to split the winnings before the ticket somehow ended up with Castro, who claimed the prize in February 2023.<\/p>\n

Standing on the steps of the Pasadena courtroom where he is facing charges of filing a false police report in connection with the incident, Rivera told The US Sun<\/em> it was \u201cwar,\u201d and he would not back down.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It’s ridiculous that they are trying to put charges on me for my own ticket,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t have words for it. But I showed them that I am the rightful winner. I was the one who bought the ticket. I\u2019m going to show everyone that I’m the rightful winner.<\/p>\n

Rivera: ‘Fighting for Justice’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“If God wants me in jail for my own ticket … Oh well, that’s what he wants,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut I\u2019m going to fight until the end. I want justice and I’m going to show the world. I’m fighting for justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera added that he was not \u201chungry for money,\u201d and was proud to be a “hard-working man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after Rivera sued, the California Lottery said it was confident Castro was the real winner. The lottery added that it’s \u201cnot authorized to investigate any criminal activity among its players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charges Filed<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In May, Romero told\u00a0The New York Post<\/em>\u00a0he believed Rivera did have the winning ticket, although he denied stealing it and said he did not know how Castro got hold of it.<\/p>\n

\n

A month later, Pasadena police confirmed that they had relaunched a formal investigation into Rivera\u2019s claim after initially closing the case. Last month, they charged Rivera with filing a false police report. That comes with a sentence of up to six months in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In mid-November, Castro’s attorney, David De Paoli, claimed to have viewed video footage<\/a> of his client buying the winning ticket, which he said should put the matter to bed once and for all.<\/p>\n

But Rivera isn\u2019t buying it.<\/p>\n

“It’s gonna blow up,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t want money, I want the truth. I’m tired. People think I’m stupid. I’m not stupid. I’m actually very, very smart.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A California man who claims to be the rightful owner of the world\u2019s biggest lottery jackpot has vowed to continue his fight for the $2 billion prize he claims was stolen from him. Jose Rivera was speaking publicly for the first time since he sued winner Edwin Castro and his former landlord Urachi F. Romero. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":301692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60,13699],"tags":[85190,85189,83186],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n$2B Powerball \u2018Pretender\u2019 Will \u2018Go to War\u2019 for Winning Ticket - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A California man who claims to be the rightful owner of the world\u2019s biggest lottery jackpot has vowed to continue his fight for the $2 billion prize he\" \/>\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\/2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"$2B Powerball \u2018Pretender\u2019 Will \u2018Go to War\u2019 for Winning Ticket - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A California man who claims to be the rightful owner of the world\u2019s biggest lottery jackpot has vowed to continue his fight for the $2 billion prize he\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket\/\" \/>\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=\"2023-12-04T22:36:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-09T19:54:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/LOTTERY.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\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\/2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket\/\",\"name\":\"$2B Powerball \u2018Pretender\u2019 Will \u2018Go to War\u2019 for Winning Ticket - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/LOTTERY.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-04T22:36:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-09T19:54:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"A California man who claims to be the rightful owner of the world\u2019s biggest lottery jackpot has vowed to continue his fight for the $2 billion prize he\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-will-go-to-war-for-winning-ticket\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/LOTTERY.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/LOTTERY.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":666,\"caption\":\"Jose Rivera is interviewed by The US Sun on steps of a Pasadena courtroom Friday. 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