Woman stole a $1 million lottery ticket from her brother. She faces 15 years in prison

32-year-old American stole a $1M winning lottery ticket from her cousin and cashed it out.

The owner of the winning ticket asked his cousin Iris Amador Argeta to cash the entire jackpot because he wanted to remain anonymous. As a reward she was supposed to get $50k. Instead, the woman forged a letter from the U.S. gaming commission stating that there had been an error during the lottery draw and the prize was not $1M but only $20k. Argeta gave her cousin an envelope containing $13,436 – the rest was supposedly taken for taxes.

However, the real winner found a news item on the New York lottery website saying that someone had claimed his prize. The article stated that the winner had chosen a one-time payment of $537,440 after taxes. When he contacted his cousin, she threatened him with a lawsuit, after which the real ticket owner went to the police. During the investigation law enforcement froze Argeta’s bank account, which held about $318k.

She now faces up to 15 years in prison.