You'd imagine that most lottery winners would be happy, maybe even grateful for their good luck.
These two folks aren't those kinds of people.
Eduardo Moran-Barrera and Neil Ferguson were arrested by the State Gaming Commission for allegedly running a scam that let them collect lottery winnings without paying the proper amount in taxes.
The alleged scam was discovered by New York State Tax and Finance investigators.
Here's how the scam worked. For a fee, Barrera and Ferguson would cash in winning lottery tickets for people who owe the state money for back taxes or fines. The reason lottery winners need guys like Barrera and Ferguson is, in New York State, if you win over 600 bucks in a lottery you must pay the state off before you collect a cent of your winnings.So if you win 5 grand and owe the state $4,999 you'd end up getting paid 1 dollar.
In one case Barrera and Ferguson allegedly cashed in a $5,000 thousand dollar winning ticket for a man who owed the state $172,000.
Corrupt lottery retailers and bodega owners were also busted in the scam.
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