A lottery winner kept his winnings secret from his wife and initiated divorce proceedings against her so that he wouldn't have to share the prize, freinds and relatives claimed.
His plan was rumbled yesterday when the freinds and relatives turned him in to tax authorities, after they said he failed to make good on a promise to pay each of them NT$1 million for keeping news of his good fortune a secret, sources said.
Filing a report of the incident with tax authorities in Keelung, the disappointed relatives and friends said that the man, a 43-year-old Keelung resident surnamed Yu (游), had failed to pay taxes on the NT$335 million prize, which they claim he won on Feb. 12, the lottery's seventh drawing.
According to their report, on the first night of the Lunar New Year holiday, Yu was playing Mah-jong and watching TV with family and friends at a relative's house. Yu's wife wasn't present, having gone to visit her parents.
After viewing the lottery drawing and realizing he had won, Yu promised NT$1 million to those present, as long as they promised to remain silent about his good fortune.
Everyone went along with the plan, according to the report, assuming it was just Yu being concerned about security.
It soon became clear to the group, however, that Yu had no intention of sharing the prize and in an effort to keep all of the winnings, he wanted to divorce his wife.
The report also claims that he separated the money and deposited NT$260 million into his younger brother's account.
Yu, however, claims he has won nothing and that his wife is mentally unstable.
"I think somebody misunderstood," he said. "I did not win that lottery, so I don't have any taxes to pay. The fact is that my wife has mental problems. She keeps telling everybody that I was the winner but wouldn't share the money with her. She left home last August and refuses to come back."
Regarding his divorce plans, Yu said this was another misunderstanding.
"She came back during the Lunar New Year in February," said Yu. "But she yelled at my parents and was extremely rude. I can't stand it anymore, so I have decided to divorce her. That's the real story."
Yu also said he is currently holding down two jobs and earned only NT400,000 last year.
"Think about it," he said. "If I'm really the winner, why do I have to work so hard? My family and I would have been enjoying the good life by now."
Yu's wife said that she does have a brain tumor, but she is not crazy.
"I don't understand why Yu would say and do such things," she said. "I'm still a working lady. Would a person still be able to work if they had mental problems? Is that possible?"
In the meantime, Yu's cousin said he was quite sure Yu won the lottery jackpot, because he was present when he made the NT$1 million offer.
"I'm quite sure he was the one," the cousin said. "He did promise NT$1 million for everybody there at the time. We agreed it was necessary to keep it a secret for security reasons. However, he soon became quite mean and said he wanted to divorce his wife. That's why we decided to turn him."
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