I missed a $20 million lottery win after missing the jackpot by 7 seconds – don’t make the same mistake

A lottery winner has been denied millions after making a crucial mistake with his ticket.

Canadian accountant Joe Ifergan was heartbroken in 2015 when Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that he could not claim his share of a $27 million ($36.1 million) jackpot.

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Ifergan was initially denied a share after discovering he had a winning ticket for missing the deadline to buy by seven seconds The guard.

On May 23, 2008, just before 9:00 pm – the deadline for receiving a ticket – the accountant went to a supermarket to enter the evening’s Lotto Super 7 drawing.

According to court documents, a store clerk told Ifergan to hurry before the time was up because he was buying two tickets for the raffle.

At 8:59 p.m., Ifergan registered the first ticket and the second was entered into the Loto Quebec computer seven seconds later, allowing it to be accepted into the following week’s drawing.

The seller then told Ifergan that the second receipt had been entered late and asked if he still wanted to buy it, which the accountant did, according to court documents.

This second ticket turned out to be the winning ticket, given only to Ifergan and one other Canadian resident, and he was denied his share due to late filing.

Ifergan later sued Loto-Quebec for a “processing delay,” but after a seven-year legal battle, his appeal was dismissed and the money left to the other winner.

If the accountant had been seven seconds faster, he would have been around $13.5 million (US$18 million) richer.

Although the outcome was likely disappointing for Ifergan, winning the lottery can bring unexpected challenges.

Several other winners have had their earnings reduced in various ways, and others have even been sued by family members for the entire jackpot.

Lotto Andrew Stoltmann, in an exclusive interview with The US Sun, explained that he’s seen at least 10 “Lotto losers” lose their money in a short period of time.

The attorney pointed out that the two biggest outflows of those funds came from reckless spending and the family’s desire for a share of the profits.

Not to mention that, according to Stoltman, at least 90 percent make an initial mistake by choosing the lump-sum payment option over annuity payments.

As The US Sun previously reported, a similar decision resulted in Vipan Kumar of Nassau County, New York, taking home $3,255,000 after demanding withholding from a $5 million prize.

This also puts the winners in a difficult position initially as they have access to all funds as lawsuits could come out of nowhere as was the case with Mega Millions jackpot winner Rebecca Jemison in 2003.

Jemison was sued by Elecia Battle after she claimed that she was originally the ticket holder but that she fell out of her purse onto the street outside a store in the Cleveland suburb of South Euclid. CNN reported.

Battle then dropped the lawsuit a year later.

“I wanted to win,” Battle said publicly at the time.

“I bought a ticket and lost it. I wanted so badly to win for my kids and my family.”

Battle was later found guilty of falsifying a police report.

She had to do 50 hours of community service and a year of probation.

Battle also had to pay over $5,500 in compensation for the week that South Euclid Police had to spend looking for the ticket and was fined an additional $1,075.

For more related content, see the US Sun’s coverage of a person who had just $84,000 left from a $1 million jackpot while their colleague collected the rest.

The US Sun also reports a $2 million jackpot that took a winner three months to claim.