The Consequences of Lottery Ticket Tampering

If you have ever bought a lottery scratcher ticket, you know that there is a certain kind of thrill in seeing a big prize revealed as you scratch off the spaces with a quarter. Uncovering that same price twice on the ticket leads to the thought that perhaps this is your lucky day. When the final space reveals that you did not win, that moment of happiness you had while imagining what you would do with the money quickly fades, and the ticket goes into the trashcan. You might even wonder: what if you could know ahead of time whether your ticket was a winner or a loser?

That is the same thought that Francis Bou Karam of Newport Beach had as he stared at the rows of scratcher tickets he sold every day as a clerk at Craig Liquor in Santa Ana. He is accused of rigging the lottery in his favor by “pinning” tickets, which is scratching off the portion of the ticket that reveals a code that the scanner of a lottery computer uses to verify a ticket as a winner. If the ticket won, he would redeem it. If it did not, he would sell it to unsuspecting customers.

In total, Karam is accused of redeeming $50,000 in winning tickets and selling $100,000 of bad tickets to customers. The California State Lottery investigated the liquor store because of “suspicious redemption activity,” which led to Karam’s arrest and charges.¹

Cashing in on Fraud (California Penal Code Section 487)

Lottery ticket fraud of this type can be punished under multiple laws. First, Karam has been charged with grand theft. Under California Penal Code Section 487, grand theft is the theft of anything with a value in excess of $950. If charged as a felony, the crime is punishable by a sentence between 16 months and three years in county jail.

Karam is also accused of computer access fraud, which is the use of a computer network, terminal, or service in a manner for which the person accused does not have permission. In his case, he is accused of illegally using the lottery’s computer network to verify which tickets were winning tickets. Under California Penal Code Section 502, this crime, if charged as a felony, can be punished with the same type of sentence as grand theft. Additionally, if the victim receives an injury costing $5,000 or more as a result of the crime, a conviction could result in a fine of up to $10,000.

Finally, Karam is also accused of 23 counts of forgery. Most people think that forgery is using someone else’s signature on a document of some kind. However, California law’s definition of forgery includes more than just the fraudulent use of a signature. Under California Penal Code Section 470, a person also commits forgery when, with intent to commit a fraud, the person creates, alters, or presents as genuine a false document pertaining to property, finances, or money, including lottery tickets. Felony forgery is punishable by up to three years in custody.

In addition to these charges, the district attorney is seeking to add the “aggravated white-collar crime” enhancement to the penalty if Karam is convicted. Under California Penal Code Section 186.11, any person who commits two or more related felonies, where an element of the felonies is fraud or embezzlement, and the pattern results in the taking of over $100,000 from two or more victims, that person can face up to an additional five years in state prison, depending on the amount that was taken.

The district attorney is pursuing a total of 18 years and four months in prison for Karam.

Contact the Defense Attorneys at Wallin & Klarich

If you or someone you know has been accused of a white-collar crime, you will need an experienced and aggressive attorney to help you. At Wallin & Klarich, our attorneys have been successfully defending clients against fraud charges for more than 40 years. Let us help you, too. Contact us today for a free, no obligation phone consultation.

With offices in Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, Torrance, Tustin, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, West Covina and Victorville, there is an experienced Wallin & Klarich criminal defense attorney near you, no matter where you work or live.

Call us today at (877) 4-NO-JAIL or (877) 466-5245 for a free phone consultation. We will get through this together.

^{1. Alma Fausto, “Santa Ana liquor store clerk arrested on suspicion of lottery ticket tampering,” The Orange County Register, November 25, 2014, available at http://www.ocregister.com/articles/liquor-643475-clerk-lottery.html”>http://www.ocregister.com/articles/liquor-643475-clerk-lottery.html↩}