More than a decade of investigations will finally put an end to the question of who won a €4.7m Primitiva jackpot in Spain in 2012.
Spanish media outlet El País reported that hearings have begun at a court in the city of A Coruña, with one widow and her daughter on one side, and a former state official and his brother on the other side of the argument.
The apple of discord became a jackpot won from a Primitiva Lottery ticket that was bought one-and-a-half decades ago, but the winner was not discovered until recently.
Manuel Eugenio Reija, one of the defendants, was operating a lottery terminal at the time that the ticket was purchased, while his brother was an official from the regulator – the Spanish Lottery Administration.
The prosecution, backed by years of evidence collection, argues that Reija scanned the winning ticket and purposefully avoided notifying the customer so that he could keep the prize for himself. Reija is then alleged to have tried to claim the money three months before the ticket expired, leveraging his brother’s position to bypass the standard procedures.
In their report, the prosecution further points out that Reija and his brother maintained that the ticket was found by accident and that the original purchaser was unknown. This was largely the case until 2021, when investigators revealed that the ticket was bought by a resident of A Coruña, who passed away in 2014.
The widow and daughter of the winner will now stand against Reija and his brother in an effort to claim back the money. Both brothers are facing up to six years in prison if they are found guilty on money laundering, fraud and corruption charges.
While other Spanish Lottery Administration employees were at one point also under investigation, no further suspects will stand trial. The case will see a total of 32 witnesses testify, including six police officers who were part of the investigation.