Owner of winning lottery ticket receives money after 6 years of litigation

Three weeks after the appeals court ruled in favor of the Kien Giang lottery agent for a winning lottery ticket worth 1.5 billion VND, Ms. Tuyet received the money to execute the judgment.

Ms. Tuyet received 200 million VND in advance from the lottery jackpot 6 years ago. Photo: Duong Dong.

On November 27, Mr. Ngo Xuong Phuc - representative of Trieu Phat lottery agent voluntarily paid the Civil Judgment Enforcement Office of Rach Gia City (Kien Giang) 200 million VND to enforce the appeal judgment dated November 7, of the Kien Giang People's Court. The judgment required Mr. Phuc and the legal representative of the lottery agent to pay Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet (Mong Tho A commune, Chau Thanh) the amount of the special prize of the lottery ticket, equivalent to 1.344 billion VND (after tax deduction).

Mr. Phuc committed to pay Ms. Tuyet the remaining amount by January 4, 2018. If he fails to do so by the deadline, the Civil Judgment Enforcement Office of Rach Gia City will enforce the payment according to regulations.

On the same day, Ms. Tuyet was happy to receive 200 million VND in advance from the jackpot prize from 6 years ago. "Over the past years, I have not been able to do any business, the debt I borrowed is more than half the value of the winning lottery ticket. Hearing that I went to receive the money, the creditors came to my house.wait for money", Ms. Tuyet said and said she wanted to receive the remaining money soon to pay off debts to relatives and neighbors; the rest was for business.

"I am very grateful to the courts at all levels, the press, and many acquaintances and strangers who have supported me spiritually and materially over the past long time," said the owner of the winning lottery ticket.

According to the decision, the owner of the winning lottery ticket is obliged to pay nearly 40 million VND in execution fees due to the request. However, the Enforcement Officer instructed Ms. Tuyet to submit a request for exemption from this amount due to her poverty, debt, and raising a disabled child...

Ms. Tuyet, her son and two grandchildren live in a charity house. Photo: Cuu Long.

According to records, on July 22, 2011, Ms. Tuyet and her family brought lottery ticket 938368 - issued by An Giang Lottery Company Limited - winning the special prize of 1.5 billion VND to Trieu Phat lottery agent to redeem the prize.

After checking, the agent, Mr. Ngo Xuong Phuc, confirmed that the lottery ticket won the jackpot and agreed to pay Ms. Tuyet 20 taels of 24k gold, the rest in cash.

Mrs. Tuyet went to the car to get her ID card to do the paperwork. When she returned, she saw that Mr. Phuc had flipped the lottery ticket to the back, took out his ID card to write down the information, then pushed the lottery ticket to Mrs. Tuyet's son and asked him to sign.

Mr. Phuc took the lottery ticket, put it in a plastic bag and had his family put it in the closet. A few minutes later, he called his nephew to check it again. After looking at it with the naked eye, the nephew said that the lottery ticket had been cut and pasted unevenly in the first and last numbers of the 6-digit series, so he refused to exchange it and called the police.

Kien Giang police once initiated a case of Fraudulent appropriation of property but suspended it because they could not determine the act of swapping lottery tickets.Ms. Tuyet then sued the lottery agent to compensate her for 1.5 billion VND in damages.

The case was brought to trial twice but was postponed. One time, out of frustration, Ms. Tuyet and her relatives caused a disturbance in court. For this action, she and her daughter were sentenced to 12 months in prison; two other relatives were also sentenced to 7 months in prison.

In April 2016, the Rach Gia City People’s Court declared Ms. Tuyet’s case in favor. However, the lottery agent appealed, claiming that he did not swap Ms. Tuyet’s lottery ticket. Six months later, the appeals court overturned the verdict because it determined that the first instance court had committed serious procedural violations.

At the end of May, the second instance court based on the results of the forensic examination by the Institute of Criminal Science (Ministry of Public Security) on camera images at the lottery agency determined that "there were 2 lottery tickets". Of which, the lottery ticket that did not win the jackpot that Mr. Phuc gave to Ms. Tuyet's son to sign was taken by Mr. Phuc from the cabinet behind the transaction desk.

The court then accepted Ms. Tuyet's lawsuit, forcing the owner of Trieu Phat lottery agency to pay the plaintiff 1.5 billion VND for the winning lottery ticket. However, the Rach Gia City People's Procuracy and Mr. Phuc disagreed with this verdict.

According to VNE