Lotto winners discover $5.7M scam

Lotto winners discover $5.7M scam
TheStar.com - GTA -
RENE JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR

Hafiz Zulqarnain Malik shields his face with a scarf before a crush of media as he leaves Ontario court at Old City Hall yesterday after being released on bail. He has been charged for allegedly stealing a $5.75 million 6/49 lottery ticket.
Tale of the winning ticket

Here is how four lottery partners lost $5.75 million, then won it back again:

June 2004 – Lorraine Teicht buys a 6/49 ticket at a gas station near Orillia.

June 23, 2004 – Winning ticket is drawn but no one comes forward to collect. A short time later, Teicht checks the ticket at a Toronto convenience store and is told the ticket is worthless.

January 2005 – Convenience store owner Hafiz Malik cashes $5.75 million winning ticket for 6/49 draw of June 23, 2004.

April 25, 2005 – Malik buys $1 million house in Mississauga.

Yesterday – Malik appears in court on four fraud and theft charges while police seize his house and assets. Four original lottery partners accept cheque from lottery corporation for $5.75 million plus $788,000 in interest.
December 20, 2007
Betsy Powell
Dale Brazao
staff reporters

When three lottery players discovered last year that someone had cashed their $5.75 million winning ticket, they hired a private detective to find out if the fourth member of their ticket-buying group had pocketed their millions behind their backs.

For years, Lorraine Teicht, Paul Carlisi, and sisters-in-law Silvana and Aurora Pincivero, four friends who all worked for the Toronto Catholic District School Board, had pooled their money to buy lottery tickets using the same numbers.

But at a party in February 2006, the Pinciveros and Carlisi made a shocking discovery when they punched their regular numbers into an Ontario Lottery Corp. website and saw them in the winner's column for 2004. The payout would have been $5.75 million.

They contacted the lottery corporation, which cited privacy laws in refusing to disclose the identity of any winner that far back. "They told them to get lost," says a source familiar with what happened.

The trio grew suspicious and hired a private detective to see if their friend Teicht's lifestyle had dramatically changed. But there was no evidence of a spending binge or hidden bank accounts.

At the same time, a friend had done his own detective work, learning that the winning ticket had been sold at the Orchard Gate Esso station and convenience store in Orillia on June 23, 2004.

That's when the three lottery partners confronted Teicht, who owns property in Lagoon City, near Orillia. They told her they thought she had stolen their lottery winnings and demanded answers. In tears, she admitted she had bought the 6/49 ticket there using the group's usual numbers, but denied stealing the money.

Then she remembered something.

After returning home to Toronto, Teicht had taken the ticket to a tiny retail outlet in the Dupont and Dufferin Sts. area. The barely metre-wide shop sold only three things – pop, cigarettes and lottery tickets.

A lottery terminal is supposed to emit a jingle when a winning ticket is inserted – and it makes much more noise for a jackpot win like $5.75 million. This time it didn't, and the clerk told Teicht the ticket was worthless, says a source familiar with what transpired. At the time, she had told her lotto buddies they had won nothing.

Seven months later, in January 2005, Hafiz Malik showed up at the lottery headquarters with the winning ticket. Aware that he operated a shop with a lottery terminal, officials investigated before Malik was handed a cheque for $5.75 million.

But that was before Ombudsman Andre Marin's scathing report this year on the winning habits of some lottery ticket sellers.

The lottery partners then began a search of library archives and filed freedom of information requests in an attempt to find out who had collected the $5.75 million, but came up empty.

They began to look at the tiny convenience store.

They learned that after collecting his winnings, Malik had closed his store and purchased a $1 million mansion in Mississauga. He had also bought several luxury cars and apparently gave his son $1 million to buy a Tim Hortons franchise.

Earlier this year, when they approached the lottery corporation armed with fresh information, the Ontario Provincial Police were called.

Greg Harris, lawyer for the group, said his clients weren't optimistic when they went to the lottery corporation with their case.

"The Ontario Lottery Corporation is a very, very different organization now than it was previously," Harris said.

"When we approached the OLG, honestly, we did fear the worst. But right from the very beginning they said `We're going to take this very seriously.' And they did."

Eventually, Malik was arrested and charged with two counts of fraud, one of theft and one of possession of stolen property. Police also moved under proceeds of crime legislation to seize $5 million worth of property, including the Mississauga house and several cars.

Yesterday, Malik, 60, appeared in court and was freed on $60,000 bail.

Then, in the afternoon, the lottery corporation cut a cheque and presented it to the four original winners.

"I was shocked but was very excited at the same time," said Aurora Pincivero. "Maybe now I can finally take my kids to Disney World. This is a dream come true – really."

As for Lorraine Teicht, she said she and her lottery partners would be celebrating in the new year.

"I'm very elated, very happy," she said. "It was a long journey but we're very happy with the end of our journey."

And the cheque they received yesterday was for a lot more than $5.75 million. The lottery corporation added $788,000 in interest.