One of the winners of April’s $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot was an immigrant who has been suffering from cancer for eight years and intends to use the money for treatment and help for his family.
Cheng “Charlie” Sephan, 46, has lived in Portland for 30 years and said at a news conference held Monday by the Oregon Lottery that he and his wife Duanpeng, 37, will split the prize equally with a friend.
The friend is 55-year-old Lisa Chao, a resident of Milwaukee, a suburb of Portland, who contributed $100 to jointly purchase a batch of tickets.
The winners will receive a one-time payout of $422 million after taxes.
“I will be able to support my family and my health,” said Safan, who has two young children and worked as a machinist for an aerospace company.
The man, who only last week underwent chemotherapy, added that he would now “find himself a good doctor.”
Saphan said he was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987 before immigrating to the United States in 1994. At the press conference, he carried a sign identifying himself as Yu Mien, a Southeast Asian ethnic group with roots in southern China.
Many Yu Mein were subsistence farmers and helped American troops during the Vietnam War; After the conflict, thousands of Yu Mien families fled to Thailand to escape reprisals and eventually settled in the United States, especially on the West Coast.
The winning Powerball ticket was sold in early April at a Portland convenience store, ending a winning streak that lasted more than three months.
Under Oregon law, with some exceptions, lottery players cannot remain anonymous and winners have one year to claim the top prize.
The $1.3 billion prize is the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history and the eighth-largest jackpot game in the United States, according to the Oregon Lottery.
The largest US lottery jackpot in 2022 was $2.04 billion in California.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.