The Romanian Lottery is in the middle of a large scandal after one of its latest winners hasn't claimed a EUR 3.6 million prize. One of the company's former advisors claims this winner has never existed and was invented so that the company would only pay half of its grand prize. The company firmly rejected the accusations.

On December 30 last year, two people from Gaesti, Romania, won the grand prize of the Loto 6/49 draw. They had to split more than EUR 7.2 million, each of them getting some EUR 3.6 million. The winners had 90 days to claim the prizes. However, one of them hasn't gone to the Lottery office to claim his prize until March 29, the last day when he could do that. This has raised some questions.

Sorin Constantinescu, a former advisor of the Romanian Lottery said at a local TV station that the second winner didn't even exist. "Nobody will ever come to claim the second prize. I've said from the beginning that the second winner didn't exist and that the person who really won actually lost half of the total prize," he said at Romania TV.

According to him, the Lottery lied about the second winner so that the money would remain in the company. "According to the Lottery's regulations, if the prize is not claimed within 90 days, the money goes into its account, turning into profit for the company," Constantinescu explained.

The Romanian Lottery has firmly denied the accusations in an official statement: "These statements are not true, are unfounded and greatly harm to the company's image."

According to the company's statement, there have been two grand-prize winners at the special Loto 6/49 draw in December, both of them from Gaesti, Dambovita county. While one of them claimed his prize on January 14 this year, the second one failed to do so until now. The Lottery doesn't know the identity of the winners until they come to take their prizes.

"We also mention that the ticket holder has the responsibility to present the winning ticket and that there were other situations in which the prizes were not claimed," the Lottery said in the statement.

The largest unclaimed prize in the Lottery's recent history amounted to RON 1.9 million (some EUR 426,000) and was won in the Loto 6/49 draw organized on December 30, 2013.

The draws are broadcasted live, they are public, and supervised by representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Interior, the National Authority for Consumer Protection, the Romanian Bureau of Legal Metrology, and the Sports Ministry, the Lottery explains in the statement.

Moreover, the Lottery has announced that it has initiated the procedure for a technical audit of its entire system used for draws. Based on the audit's results, the Lottery plans to take legal actions against all those who did and will make untrue and unfounded statements about the Lottery's draws.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com