{"id":295895,"date":"2023-10-26T20:15:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T01:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=295895"},"modified":"2023-10-27T11:19:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:19:13","slug":"2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"$2B Powerball \u2018Pretender\u2019 Could Face Police Charges, Official Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Altadena, Calif. man who claims he is the rightful recipient of the world\u2019s biggest lottery prize<\/a> could be charged with filing a false police report, The US Sun<\/em> claims.<\/p>\n

\"Edwin
Edwin Castro, above, has been buying up high-end property in L.A. and denies knowing Rivera or stealing his ticket. (Image: Boss Hunting)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jose Rivera<\/a> sued $2.08 billion Powerball winner Edwin Castro<\/a> in February 2023, a week after he claimed the prize. Rivera alleged that he, not Castro, bought the golden ticket from Joe\u2019s Service Center in Altadena, Calif., on Nov. 7, 2022. He claimed the ticket was stolen from him by his former landlord, Urachi F. \u201cReggie\u201d Romero.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The New York Post<\/em> in May, Romero said he believed Rivera did have the winning ticket. Romero recalled Rivera explaining why he picked the winning numbers: 10, 33, 41, 47, 56, and red Powerball 10.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI asked him why he picked two 10s. He said it was the date his parents both died. He picked 47 because that\u2019s how old he is,\u201d Romero explained to\u00a0the Post<\/em>. \u201cHe also said his dad always wanted a 1956 Chevy truck, so he picked 56. He had a reason why he chose every number, and he told me this before [the draw].\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning Numbers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But Romero denied taking the ticket and having any connection to Castro. He said he had no idea how the ticket ended up in Castro\u2019s possession.<\/p>\n

The California Lottery initially insisted it was confident Castro was the rightful winner, but added it is \u201cnot authorized to investigate any criminal activity among its players.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In June, the Pasadena Police Department confirmed that it had relaunched a formal investigation into the matter \u2013 after initially closing the case \u2013 and was working closely with California Lottery investigators.<\/p>\n

New Twist<\/strong><\/h2>\n

City of Pasadena Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian reportedly told The US Sun<\/em> Wednesday of a new twist in the case.<\/p>\n

Derderian said investigators now suspect Rivera of lying about his stolen ticket and are preparing to act.<\/p>\n

I was just told our police department turned over the documentation to our City Prosecutor for potential misdemeanor charges for filing a false police report,”<\/strong> she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Castro has always denied Rivera\u2019s allegations through his lawyers, and has been busy splurging on luxury property in Los Angeles, according to reports.<\/a><\/p>\n

These include a $47 million compound in Bel Air with seven bedrooms, 11 baths, and an infinity pool with sweeping views of downtown LA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really care what\u2019s going on between those guys [Rivera and Romero], because it doesn\u2019t really involve us except to the extent that we\u2019re sitting here in court,\u201d Castro\u2019s lawyer, David De Paoli, said last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, it is going to become clear that Edwin G. Castro is the legitimate owner of the ticket,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Altadena, Calif. man who claims he is the rightful recipient of the world\u2019s biggest lottery prize could be charged with filing a false police report, The US Sun claims. Jose Rivera sued $2.08 billion Powerball winner Edwin Castro in February 2023, a week after he claimed the prize. Rivera alleged that he, not Castro, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":295896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60,13699],"tags":[85190,85189,83186],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n$2B Powerball \u2018Pretender\u2019 Could Face Police Charges<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Powerball winner Edwin Castro probably the rightful winner after Pasadena police prepare charges against Jose Rivera for filing false report\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"$2B Powerball \u2018Pretender\u2019 Could Face Police Charges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Powerball winner Edwin Castro probably the rightful winner after Pasadena police prepare charges against Jose Rivera for filing false report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-27T01:15:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-27T16:19:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/castro.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges\/\",\"name\":\"$2B Powerball \u2018Pretender\u2019 Could Face Police Charges\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/castro.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-27T01:15:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-27T16:19:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Powerball winner Edwin Castro probably the rightful winner after Pasadena police prepare charges against Jose Rivera for filing false report\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2b-powerball-pretender-could-face-police-charges\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/castro.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/castro.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675,\"caption\":\"Edwin Castro, above, has been buying up high-end property in L.A. and denies knowing Rivera or stealing his ticket. 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