GREENVILLE – The owner of a convenience store in the north of the state who received credit for selling the ticket winning the largest lottery payment ever made in South Carolina has been accused of tax evasion.
The state’s Department of Revenue said on March 12 that 49-year-old owner of the convenience store chain Chirag Jayanti Patel has been unable to report just over $ 2 million in sales over a five-year period.
Inaccurate tax claims from 2013 to 2017 allowed him to avoid $ 123,044 in sales taxes, according to arrest warrants alleging five tax evasion charges.
Tax evasion orders occurred prior to the sale of the $ 1.5 billion MegaMillions winning lottery ticket at one of Patel’s KC Mart stores in Simpsonville.
In March 2019, when the anonymous woman claimed her prize in a one-time payment of $ 877.8 million six months after the draw, Patel introduced herself to the media and described how he would use the $ 50,000 commission earned from the sale to renew his store.
Legal drama surrounded the MegaMillions jackpot claim.
Last August, the New York lawyer who represented the woman was indicted on federal charges that he stole tens of millions of various earnings that he was tasked with investing.
Jason Kurland stole $ 107 million from three winners, prosecutors said in a court case last summer. Kurland called himself the “Lottery Lawyer” and claimed to represent the interests of dozens of lottery winners, with total earnings of $ 3 billion.
The maximum, $ 70 million, came from the Simpsonville winner, prosecutors said.
The scheme involved mafia ties, extravagant expenses and the sale of personal protective equipment to the state of California during the coronavirus outbreak last spring, while the Simpsonville winner believed the profits would be donated to charities, said promoters.
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