Two men from Pennsylvania have been sentenced to two years of probation after they were found guilty in a lottery fraud scheme. One of the men won a $500,000 jackpot, and they tried a scheme to skip paying taxes. However, things did not go well for Kendrick D. Francis, a man used to buying lottery tickets all the time, and his convenience store owner friend, Charig R. Patel. Powerball lottery

Several days ago, both men admitted to making stating false facts on a tax return a few months ago and defrauding the IRS. The men could have received 3 years in federal prison. However, Chief District Judge Gregory M. Sleet admitted their plead for an aberrant fact and decided that depriving the two men of their freedom would not serve society in any way. None of them have any criminal records and their attorneys argued that both of them feel tremendous remorse because of what they did. US lottery

Prosecutors revealed that Kendrick Francis managed to win $532,000 at the Pennsylvania State Lottery. Everything went great until his friend suggested that he could save himself from paying the owed taxes. The man’s prize came after buying 360 lottery tickets with the same number at the Big 4 game, and Patel suggested that he could have other people cash in some of the tickets and thus skip paying the income taxes. Francis gave Patel $50,000 for finding others to cash in about 50 percent of his total prize, and that was the whole thing. Lottery results

Edmund Lyons Jr., Patel’s attorney, stated that the man’s actions were motivated by need, as money came hard in these times of economic recession. The attorney also stated that his client paid what he owed to the government. Things looked a bit grimmer for Kendrick Francis, as prosecutors demanded a harder sentence, as the $100,000 of tax money were still owed. But John S. Malik, Francis’ attorney, said that his client paid 10 percent of what he owed and he is working as hard as possible to get the rest of the money.

It is a sad thing to see those who win the lotteries in a case like this. People often overlook the fact that lottery taxes are paid for the greater good, and only think about themselves.

Well, that’s it for now, but return soon if you want to learn the latest news from the world of lotteries.