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Real estate investor charged with taking money from others and gambling on the lottery
A real estate broker is facing 20 years in prison for allegedly defrauding investors of millions and spending it on the lottery.
DETROIT - A man addicted to the Michigan Lottery was sentenced to more than four years in prison Wednesday for a scheme that cost investors more than $23 million.
Viktor Gjonaj of Troy told people that he was plowing their money into real estate deals. Instead, he was playing the Daily 3 and Daily 4 games — more than $1 million a week by 2019.
Gjonaj believed he had discovered a guaranteed way to win big jackpots, according to his plea agreement.
Instead, Gjonaj "wound up with nothing other than a federal felony conviction," defense attorney Steve Fishman said in a court filing.
Gjonaj, a real estate broker, created a fake title company and instructed investors to wire money into a bank account, investigators said.
U.S. District Judge Linda Parker sentenced him to 53 months in federal prison.
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Fishman, who had sought 30 months, said Gjonaj confessed to the FBI even before agents knew there was a scam.
He called it an "extraordinary acceptance of responsibility."