A man has sued a lottery winner, after claiming that the winning ticket was stolen from him, and therefore the windfall of the largest lottery jackpot in history.
Jose Rivera has filed a lawsuit against the declared winner, Edwin Castro, as well as another man named "Reggie", who he believes stole the winning ticket worth $2.04 billion (£1.7 billion).
Mr Rivera claimed he bought the ticket from an auto repair shop called Joe's Service Center in Altadena, California, and Reggie stole it from him on the same day.
He then said that he contacted Reggie to try and get the ticket back, but without success.
The plaintiff said that Reggie refused to return the ticket and blackmailed Mr Rivera by offering to split the winnings, according to court documents seen by TMZ.
California Lottery was legally obliged to disclose the name of the winner, under California law, and on February 14, it named the winner as Edwin Castro.
But further information surrounding his identity remained a mystery.
Mr Castro didn't appear at a press conference the company organised for the grand prize, and hasn't spoken to the press yet.
Lottery officials stated that he declined the invitation to attend the event and that he would like to remain largely private, True Scoop News reported.
In a prepared statement that was read out at the event, Mr Castro said he was "shocked and ecstatic" to have won the drawing and praised the lottery company for providing part of its revenue to the state's public schools.
In his lawsuit, Mr Rivera listed both Mr Castro and Reggie as two separate defendants.
However, the lawsuit doesn't clarify whether they knew each other, what their relationship was, and how exactly they were involved in the alleged theft.
The plaintiff submitted a claim form to California Lottery asking for an investigation, and to be declared the winner of the jackpot.
When contacted, a worker at Joe's Service Center called Mr Rivera "crazy" and said that he showed up at the store and caused a scene.
They told the Daily Mail: "California Lottery have strict regulations about how they choose a winner, this guy [Mr Rivera] is crazy, he came in here with his attorney yelling about it and there's nothing we can do."
In a statement, California Lottery said that it was "confident that Edwin Castro is the rightful winner".
The statement read: "The California Lottery is not authorised to investigate criminal activity among its players; such allegations are subject to investigation only by local law enforcement.
"Should a local law enforcement agency investigate such allegations, Lottery’s only role is to assist in the matter by answering questions and/or providing evidence as allowed under the law.
"Further, when it comes to the vetting process for big winners, California Lottery has the utmost confidence in its process for doing so.
"California Lottery remains confident that Edwin Castro is the rightful winner of the $2.04 billion prize stemming from the Powerball drawing in November of 2022."
Further information regarding the lawsuit and how the case will proceed has not been released.
At the time the winner was announced, the Associated Press estimated that the likelihood of winning Mr Castro's prize was comparable to flipping a coin and having it land on the same side 28 consecutive times.
The National Weather Service from its side stated that it would be way more likely for someone to be struck by lightning than win that prize.
In fact, they estimated that individuals who live up to 80 years of age have a one-in-15,300 chance of being struck by lightning.
