15 Riches to Rags Story of Lottery Winners Who Blew it All Away

6Abraham Shakespeare: $30 mn

Abraham Shakespeare won the Florida State Lottery worth $30 mn in 2006. However, his tale is a pretty tragic one. He decided to take up the whole $17 mn and live a comfortable life. Friends and family hounded him for funds and then a woman named Dee Dee Moore offered her help in protecting his fortune.

She convinced him to transfer the funds into her account and then murdered him. Authorities managed to pin her despite her stories thanks to surveillance tapes of Moore buying $104 worth of gloves, duct tape, plastic sheeting, and other suspicious things, which were later found near Shakespeare’s buried body. Moore got life in prison without parole.

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7Gerald Muswagon: $10 mn

Gerald Muswagon won $10 mn Super 7 Jackpot lottery in 1998. The Canadian’s life became a fairytale and he bought cars for family and himself. He bought a new house and multiple big screen TVs for friends in a day. The money led Gerald to become an addict of various bad things and spent time in prison thanks to reckless driving to sexual assault. He spent his own fortune till 2005 and went back working minimum wage. In 2006 Gerald committed suicide by hanging.

8Americo Lopes: $38.5 mn

Americo Lopes and five other people in his office pooled money to buy lottery tickets. A verbal contract was made to share the winnings after each one had pooled in money for the tickets. However, Americo came to know that one of the tickets he had bought in the pool had a price of $38.5 mn and his mind changed.

His co-workers found that Americo was planning to rob them and he was sued for the tickets, though he had claimed that he had bought the tickets with his own money. The judge ordered Lopes to pay $2 mn each to the other men.

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9Andrew Jackson Whittaker: $314,900,000

55-year-old Andrew Whittaker won $315 mn Powerball jackpot in 2002. Even after tax deduction, he got $114 mn. He lost $545,000 cash when thieves broke into his car. A second robbery cost him $200,000 and his granddaughter's boyfriend was found dead due to overdose in his house and a few months later her grand-daughter suffered the same fate.

Whittaker was sued by Caesars for bounced checks and his mansion was burned to the ground in 2016.

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10Michael Carroll: 15 mn pounds

19-year-old Michael Carroll won 15 mn pounds in the lottery and spent every penny of it on booze, women and extravagant lifestyle. He bought a mansion and turned it into his personal race track. Thieves broke into his mansion and made off with $100,000 worth of gold and jewelry.

Michael’s addiction to narcotics cost him his marriage and he blew the 15 mn pounds and was broke. He then worked at 204 pounds a week at a biscuit factory but was happier than ever.

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