Ex-Toronto retailer charged with theft after he claimed big lottery win

Four get their $5.7M 6/49 cash TheStar.com - GTA - Four get their $5.7M 6/49 cash
KAZUYOSHI EHARA/TORONTO STAR FILE



Ex-Toronto retailer charged with theft after he claimed big lottery win

December 19, 2007
Betsy Powell
STAFF REPORTER

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. righted a wrong this afternoon when $5,750.256 was presented to four people who won a Lotto 6/49 draw in 2004.

Meantime, a former lottery retailer was charged with theft.

Lottery officials handed a cheque for the big money to a lawyer representing four Toronto winners - Lorraine Teicht, Paul Carlisi, Silvana Pincivero and Aurora Pincivero.

Earlier, the Toronto convenience store owner who claimed the $5.7-million lottery prize in 2005 appeared in court, charged with theft and fraud for allegedly stealing the winning ticket.

Hafiz Zulqarnain Malik, a 60-year-old Missisauga resident, was released on bail this afternoon.

Malik is charged with two counts of fraud, one count of theft and one count of possessing property obtained through crime.

He will appear in court again Jan. 10, 2008.

The terms of his bail included a $60,000 surety. In addition, he had to surrender his Canadian and Pakistani passports, he can't leave the province and he's not allowed to communicate with any of the four original winners.

Police say the four co-workers who were regular lottery players purchased the winning ticket in central Ontario in June 2004 and took it to Malik's store, at Dufferin and Dupont streets in Toronto, for validation.

Investigators allege that Malik didn't tell the four that their ticket was a winner and then claimed the $5,750,256 jackpot for himself in January 2005.

The convenience store has since closed and Malik "is not selling lottery tickets anymore," OPP Det. Insp. Paul Beesley said.

It was only this past summer that the four ticket buyers realized their numbers had come up and that they "were the rightful owners," said Chief Supt. Bob Goodall of the OPP's investigation bureau.

Within an hour, police were contacted and an investigation was started.

This case "doesn't quite fall within the usual realm of fraud and theft as we know it," Goodall said.

"Simply put, a group of consumers entrusted a man with their lottery ticket, something that thousands of Ontarians do as part of playing lottery games every week."

As a part of the investigation, police have seized $5 million worth of Malik’s assets, including his home, an investment account and two vehicles.

The arrest came as part of a broader OPP investigation that was prompted by a scathing report from the provincial ombudsman into prize claims by Ontario lottery retailers and their employees between 1999 and 2006.

This case was not one that was originally identified by the report.