Man who reportedly sold $1.5 billion Mega Millions ticket arrested on tax evasion charges

The man who reportedly sold the lottery ticket that won a $1.537 billion Mega Millions jackpot in South Carolina in 2018 has been arrested and charged with five counts of tax evasion, according to the state’s Department of Revenue.

Chirag Jayanti Patel, 49, of Greenville County, is accused of failing to report more than $2 million in sales from 2013 through 2017, warrants show. In doing so, he evaded $123,044 in sales tax, investigators said.

In October 2018, Patel gained fame for owning the store in Simpsonville where a record lottery ticket was sold – even as the winner of the jackpot declined to be identified, according to officials with the South Carolina Education Lottery.

The winner, described as a South Carolina woman who was visiting Greenville County, opted to get a lump-sum payment of $877,784,124, officials announced in March 2019.

Jason Kurland, the lawyer who represented the woman, was indicted on federal charges in 2020 and accused of more than $100 million in fraud – including against the lottery winner.

KC Mart was to receive $50,000 for selling the winning ticket.

“It’s a lucky store for me and them, too,” Patel said at the time.

If convicted on the charges of tax evasion, Patel faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and-or a fine of $10,000 per count, plus the cost of prosecution. He is being held in the Greenville County Detention Center pending a bond hearing, according to a press release from the Department of Revenue. (USA Today)