Mega Millions jackpot winner Faramarz Lahijani claims he bought both $394 million lottery tickets – but lost the second one when he sued the California lottery

He hopes to earn twice as much.

A Mega Millions player claims he is the rightful owner of the two jackpot winning tickets sold at the same California gas station last year, but lost the second ticket – because the time to claim the prize had expired.

Faramarz Lahijani came forward publicly in June to claim his half of the $394 million prize in the drawing held on December 8, 2023.

The life-changing tickets were sold at a Chevron gas station on Ventura Blvd in Encino, California and were worth $197.5 million each.

The second ticket holder had a full year from the drawing – until December 7th – to claim the reward.

Last week, Lahijani filed a lawsuit against the California Lottery, claiming he bought the mysterious missing ticket but lost it.

In a breach of contract lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on December 6, hours before the expiration date, Lahijani argued he was the rightful winner of the remaining $197.5 million.

“Because plaintiff submitted the first matching ticket in a timely manner, he is entitled to the entire jackpot,” says the lawsuit obtained by Patch.

Lahijani claims that the winning numbers – 21, 26, 53, 66, 70 and the golden mega ball 13 – were chosen by his children and that he has been using the numbers for decades.

The lottery player filed a lawsuit with the state on December 4th.

The Post reached out to the California Lottery.

Lahijani declined to comment publicly when he picked up the first ticket prize in June. Lottery officials gave several reasons why the same numbers could be played at the same store.

“While this is incredibly unusual and interesting, it is not unheard of,” California Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Becker said last year. “There are lots of explanations; Maybe someone wanted to try their luck on two different lines for some reason, or maybe a few friends wanted to try their luck on exactly the same numbers. We won’t know exactly how this happened until the prize is claimed.”

Despite the uncertain outcome of the ongoing litigation, the Encino Chevron still made history.

The extremely lucky gas station received a record bonus of over $1.9 million, the largest bonus ever awarded to a single retailer in California Lottery history.

In the Golden State, retailers who sell a ticket valued at over $1 million receive a bonus of half a percent of the winning value up to $1 million.

Chevron received a bonus of $987,500 for each winning ticket sold, for a total of $1.975 million.

Mega Million players have a chance to end the year on a high note as Friday’s drawing is valued at $670 million after there was no jackpot winner on Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s winning numbers – 12, 14, 26, 48, 52 and the Golden Mega Ball 21 – worth $619 million would have been the 10th largest jackpot in the game’s history.