California lottery fires back at Mega Millions lottery winner Faramarz Lahijani’s $394M jackpot tickets claim

The California lottery argued that the player who claimed he was the rightful owner of two Mega Millions jackpot-winning tickets but lost one is not owed the second half of the nearly $400 million pot.

Faramarz Lahijani’s quest to be awarded the full $394 million jackpot from the Dec. 8, 2023, drawing faced another setback in court Monday as lawyers poked holes in his claims.

Attorneys representing the State of California, the California Lottery and the California State Lottery Commission claimed Lahijani’s story didn’t correlate with the facts in the case and that he didn’t follow the rules when claiming the prize.

“Payment of a Mega Millions prize without the submission of a valid winning ticket is expressly barred by the Mega Millions game Rules and by applicable California statutes and regulations,” attorneys stated in court papers filed Monday and obtained by The San Bernardino Sun.

The California Attorney General’s Office argued the case should be dismissed because of the game’s requirements, the outlet reported.

Lahijani sued the lottery for breach of contract on Dec. 4, 2024, claiming he purchased two lottery tickets using the same numbers at a gas station in Encino, California.

He said he had been using the same numbers – 21, 26, 53, 66, 70, and gold Mega Ball 13 – for decades after his children picked them.

Lahijani publicly stepped forward with the one lottery ticket in June 2024 to claim the shared half of the jackpot, worth $197.5 million.

Lahijani remained silent about his ownership of the missing ticket until Dec. 4 when he submitted a claim to the state lottery, three days before the deadline to claim the prize.

He then filed the breach of contract suit on Dec. 6.

“By virtue of his having timely submitted the first matching ticket, plaintiff is entitled to the entirety of the jackpot,” his attorney claimed in the suit.

In court records, Lahijani admitted to not having the ticket, essentially nullifying his chances of seeing the remaining $197.5 million, according to the lottery’s rules.

Despite the rightful owner of the missing ticket being unknown, the December 2023 drawing featured two jackpot winners who purchased at the Encino Chevron on Ventura Boulevard.

The gas station was awarded a record bonus of over $1.9 million, the largest ever given to a single retailer in California Lottery history.

In the Golden State, retailers that sell a ticket worth over $1 million earn a bonus of half of 1 percent of the prize value up to a million dollars.

Chevron earned a bonus of $987,500 from each winning ticket sold, totaling $1.975 million.

A demurrer hearing was scheduled for Oct. 29, but it could be canceled if Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lia Martin moves to dismiss the case.