Family and friends are usually the most trustworthy people, but to confirm a rule there must be an exception.
A Houston woman was
arrested for stealing a million dollar lottery ticket from her cousin
, who gave it to her in exchange so she could remain anonymous and now could be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. prison.
Iris Amador Argueta, 32,
also falsified lottery documents to lead her relatives to believe she had won only a small fraction of the grand prize
, Nassau County prosecutors said Tuesday.
The million-dollar embezzlement began when the victim purchased a $5 New York State Lottery Hold 'Em Poker "Scratch-Off" at a 7-Eleven in Glen Cove in October 2022, and scratched off the ticket to discover his seven-figure prize, authorities said and reproduced by local media. Then, the man asked Argueta to claim the prize for him in exchange for $50,000, with the aim of remaining anonymous, according to prosecutors from the cause.
Iris drove to New York to get the ticket and weeks later, she allegedly handed her cousin the lottery officials' fake ticket and
handed him $13,436 in cash, telling him the rest was kept by the state in taxes
.
However, the state had already issued a press release defending Argueta's million-dollar jackpot, noting that she
received a lump-sum payment of $537,440
.
When the victim confronted her cousin about the scam, she threatened him with legal action.
Nassau County officials said they recovered more than half of the stolen money from Argueta's bank account.
"The defendant took advantage of her cousin's trust, allegedly lying and manipulating him in order to keep most of her million-winning lottery ticket for herself," said Acting District Attorney Joyce Smith.
“Thanks to an excellent working partnership with the Glen Cove Police Department, we recovered over $300,000 in allegedly stolen funds and will aggressively prosecute this case,” he added.
Argueta is accused of grand theft and faces 15 years in prison.+
With information from agencies
DB
look too
He was on a stretcher in a hospital and was forced to go to the bank to carry out a procedure: "they are monsters"
They arrested a man who made women fall in love to defraud them: he came to get 1.6 million dollars from them
