Mega Millions Winner Loses $197.5M After Missing Ticket Drama
Posted on: January 27, 2026, 06:47h.
Last updated on: January 27, 2026, 06:47h.
- Mega Millions winner claims lost ticket in bid for full jackpot
- Judge rejects lawsuit, citing strict lottery ticket rules
- Second claimant fuels mystery over unclaimed $197.5M prize
A Los Angeles man who scooped a $197.5 million Mega Millions jackpot prize in December 2023 has failed in his legal bid to squeeze another $197.5 million from the California Lottery.
Faramarz Lahijani claimed he purchased two tickets with the same numbers from the same Encino, Calif., gas station, one of which he lost. He still can’t find it.
The plaintiff presented his one remaining ticket to lottery officials in June 2024 to claim the first half of the prize. In December 2024, just days before the second ticket was due to expire, Lahijani sued the California Lottery in the Los Angeles Superior Court for the other half.
In his lawsuit, the plaintiff said he bought both tickets and is the “sole winner,” arguing that he is therefore “entitled to the entire jackpot … by virtue of his having timely submitted the first matching ticket.”
He said he filed suit before it expired “out of an abundance of caution to preserve all rights which he has to the entire Dec. 8, 2023 Mega Millions jackpot.”
No Ticket, No Win
But Judge Rolf M. Treu on Monday dismissed the lawsuit, agreeing with the California Lottery’s motion that Lahijani failed to show any enforceable contract or law requiring the lottery to pay him unclaimed prize money absent a valid ticket.
The lottery pointed out that game rules and California law clearly bar payment without a valid physical winning ticket.
These deficiencies appear to be fatal to plaintiff’s claims,” the judge wrote.
It’s unclear why, if Lahijani’s claim was true, he chose to purchase two tickets with the same numbers when one would have had the same effect at half the price. Two tickets do not increase your chances of winning – they simply cost twice as much.
It could be a superstitious quirk. But a woman who attempted to intervene in the case had another explanation.
Twist in the Tale?
Cheryl Wilson claimed she bought the second ticket but the physical copy was stolen by a former employer.
Separately, her motion to intervene was denied for similar reasons: that without a physical ticket, there is no case to answer. Treu also said he did not want to turn the case into a “dispute over alleged theft and fraud.”
Given the lottery’s confirmation that the two winning tickets were sold in separate transactions, the most straightforward explanation is that two people independently purchased tickets with the same numbers. It’s a scenario that’s far more common than a single buyer intentionally duplicating an identical entry, since friends, acquaintances, or even strangers in line can share numbers on a whim.
However, with Monday’s the ruling, the remaining half of the jackpot will remain unclaimed, and we may never know the truth.
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