When his wife discovered his deception, she filed for a divorce
A Chinese man who won a lottery worth 10 million yuan (Rs 12.13 crore) has been ordered to pay millions of yuan in compensation after he concealed the news from his wife. According to a report by South China Morning Post, the man, surnamed Zhou, won the lottery worth 10 million yuan two years ago and received 8.43 million yuan (Rs 10.22 crore) after tax deduction.
However, he decided to hide the information from his wife, surnamed Lin. As per the outlet, Mr Zhou chose to give his older sister a portion of the prize money and withdrew 700,000 yuan (Rs 84.93 lakh) to help his ex-wife buy a flat.
When his wife discovered his deception, she filed for a divorce and sought to divide the couple's common property equally. She also requested the court to order his husband to pay her two-thirds of the combined 2.7 million yuan (Rs 3,27,92,822) that he spent on his sister and ex-wife.
Hearing her case, a court in eastern China's Zhejiang province found that the money Zhou transferred to his sister and ex-wife from the lottery winning was a part of the couple's common property.
The court further ruled that hiding the prize money from his wife constituted embezzling the couple's common property. Mr Zhou was subsequently ordered to pay his wife Lin 60 per cent of the concealed winnings.
The unusual story has gone viral on social media websites in China, and garnered a variety of responses, with people criticizing the husband for his selfishness.
"He used the couple's common property to buy a lottery ticket and won the top prize. He wanted to enjoy it alone [after receiving the prize]?" wrote one person on Douyin, as reported by SCMP.
In a similar incident reported last year, a Chinese man who won a $30 million (Rs 248 crore) lottery, chose to hide the news from his family claiming that the money would make them arrogant and lazy. "I have not told my wife or kid. I am concerned that they might feel superior to other people and will not work or study hard in future," the man was quoted as saying by SCMP.