Lottery Winner's Secret Leads To His Wife's Divorce Filing

Many people hide their identities after winning millions to prevent family and friends from feeling entitled to their money. However, it's rare that a winner would keep such news from their spouse.

After Zhou's wife discovered his deception, she filed for divorce and claimed 60% of his earnings as damages.

According to court documents, Zhou transferred some of his winnings from his account before his wife knew he had them. His choice of recipients further fueled his wife's anger, as one of them was his ex-wife.

700,000 yuan went to his ex-wife for a new apartment while two million yuan went to his sister, leaving him with a little over 8 million yuan.

Somehow, Zhou's wife found out about the winnings and missing 2.7 million yuan and felt betrayed.

The wife's suit asked the court for 2/3 of Zhou's winnings excluding taxes, saying she was entitled to part of the winnings as his spouse.

The extra amount Lin wanted was reparations for her husband's deception since she should've spent some of that money.

The court in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, heard her case and awarded her 2.7 million yuan, much to her husband's displeasure. It found him guilty of embezzling the couple's common property.

It's not uncommon for people to hide their winnings from family, especially in China. That's because the government requires them to contribute to national growth, including welfare and cultural programs.

Lottery winners are also required to pay tax on their jackpot, which often reduces their take-home significantly. Hence, the court's decision to punish Zhou surpassed his dishonesty toward his spouse.

The government collected 1.57 million yuan from Zhou's earnings as back taxes, leaving him with 8.43 million yuan.

Since Zhou already gifted his sister and ex-wife 2.7 million yuan, he had 5.73 million yuan left. Of that 5.73 million, Zhou had to give his wife 2.7 million yuan by court order meaning his lottery win is now whittled to 3.03 million yuan.

He's expected to appeal the court order but hasn't done so yet, nor has Lin complained about the judgment.

The Chinese rule of contributing to the country's common good sparked a trend of lottery winners hiding their identities when receiving their money. However, their information is still in the system and accessible to the government.

Last year, another Chinese man, Li, received his lottery 219 million yuan winnings in a yellow cartoonish costume, covering himself from head to toe.

The internet is deep in a debate over these man's actions, with one group saying they were right to hide their winnings and another saying they were wrong.

However, the first school of thought noted that those spouses wouldn't shoulder a debt if the men lost their lottery.

The second group reminded the first one that since men used the couple's common funds to buy the lottery tickets, their spouses were entitled to some of the winnings.

When asked about his decision, Li said it was a pre-emptive action to keep his family from being dependent on his money.