Story by John O'Brien, Marnie Eisenstadt and Jim O'Hara

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Robert Miles should have been a millionaire five times over.

Instead, he and his wife were drowning in debt, forcing them to file for bankruptcy.

Miles had bought a winning scratch-off New York Lottery ticket in 2006 at the corner store near the apartment complex where he worked as a maintenance man in a poor Syracuse neighborhood.

At the Green Ale Market, the owners’ son told Miles that the ticket was worth $5,000, according to Onondaga County prosecutors.

It was actually worth $5 million, prosecutors contend.

Miles knew the ticket’s value back then, and knew when he filed for bankruptcy that he should’ve been a multimillionaire, he said Wednesday night.

“There wasn’t a day go by that I didn’t think about how my life would’ve been,” he told The Post-Standard.

Two brothers, Andy and Nayel Ashkar, were arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiracy and attempted grand larceny in connection with Miles' lottery ticket. Andy Ashkar sold the ticket to Miles at the Ashkars' parents' store, the Green Ale Market on East Fayette Street, prosecutors said.

The alleged deception came to light last month — six years after Miles bought the ticket — after the Ashkars finally came forward to try to claim the prize.

Suspicious of the Ashkars, the New York Lottery issued a news release in mid-October about the Ashkars’ unusual six-year-old ticket. The media spread the news.

Miles’ friends urged him to call lottery officials and claim his prize, he said.

“My friends were all telling me, ‘Wow! That’s your money!” said Miles, 47.

He didn’t call.

But a police officer who’d heard about Miles’ ticket tracked him down, Miles said.

Winning moment

Miles recalled the day in 2006 when he bought the ticket. It was his lunchtime ritual to buy as much as $200 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets, he said.

Miles scratched off the ticket and knew that he’d hit the jackpot with this $20 scratch-off — $5 million. In the store, he gave the ticket to Andy Ashkar, who scanned it and told him it was only worth $5,000, Miles said.

Then Ashkar said the store was charging $1,000 to cash it, and gave Miles $4,000, Miles said.

Miles started to protest, but Ashkar ran out the door with the ticket, said he was taking it to the lottery office downtown, then jumped in a car and sped away, Miles said.

“I was running down the street behind the car, yelling,” Miles said. “A lot of people seen me yelling at him.”

Miles admitted he was in no condition to fight that day. He’d gotten high on crack cocaine the night before, he said.

“I knew, I knew,” he said, referring to the $5 million value of the ticket. “But that day, it wasn’t a good day for me.”

He said he no longer uses drugs. He’s held a steady job as a maintenance man for years, raised two children and helped raise three stepdaughters.

He never complained to the police or lottery officials about the Ashkars because, he said, it would’ve been their word against his until someone came forward to claim the money.

Miles said he went back into the Green Ale Market once, shortly after the day he turned in the winning ticket.

“Y’all did me wrong,” he said he told the Ashkars’ parents, Wafa and Nayef Ashkar. “They said, “What you talking about?’”

He said he asked them why they never posted a sign saying he’d won $5,000 in the lottery, as they usually did with a winner that big.

“They just brushed me off,” Miles said.

Miles never played scratch-off lottery games after that day, he said. He never confronted the Ashkars again because he’s a spiritual man, he said.

“On the day that they did that to me, God spoke to me and said, ‘You know, I’m gonna double that,’” Miles said. “So I knew one day it was gonna come out and people were gonna believe what I was saying.”

Ashkars plead not guilty

Miles works at the Parkside Commons apartment complex on Syracuse’s east side, across from the Ashkars’ store.

A co-worker, Tashiro Scott, confirmed that Miles has long talked about how the Ashkars had tricked him.

“He feels in his heart that they got it over on him,” Scott said. “He knew, but couldn’t prove it.”

Miles used to buy scratch-off tickets from the Green Ale Market so often that Scott dubbed him “the scratch-off king.”

“He’s a real good dude,” Scott said. “Funny. Jolly. Very optimistic.”

Wednesday, after their arraignment, the Ashkar brothers were jailed with bail set at $25,000 cash or $50,000 bond.

Green Ale Market owner Nayef Ashkar refused to comment this week, referring questions to his sons’ lawyer. The Ashkar brothers have also refused to comment.

The Ashkars’ lawyer, Robert Durr, said Wednesday the brothers are adamant that they’re innocent.

“This is not an act of desperation,” Durr said. “They happened to be very lucky. They happened to be the ones realizing the dream that day.”

But the prosecution has a solid case, Assistant District Attorney Beth Van Doren said.

Without mentioning Miles’ name, Van Doren said the victim was a credible witness, and that lottery documents support his story.

Van Doren said the victim was someone who was “down on his luck” and on the “lower socio-economic” tier in the community. He’s a completely different person now, with a family and a job, she said.

“He has been tormented for the last six years by what-ifs, should-haves and could-haves,” Van Doren said. “His life is about to change for the better.”

When he receives the winnings, however, remains unclear. Miles said he’s working with the district attorney’s office on the case and both he and prosecutors believe he has enough evidence to prove he’s the rightful owner of the lottery ticket.

"I’m feeling real good about that," he said.

Going bankrupt

Andy Ashkar paid $290,000 for his house in Camillus in August 2011. Nayel Ashkar bought a house in Cicero for $236,000 in 2008.

That same year, Miles and his wife, Vonsere, were going to bankruptcy court appointments and trying to figure out how to keep their house and car.

Bankruptcy records show a family working hard to get to the middle class. In 2008, the Mileses were bringing in $53,000 a year. He was working as a groundskeeper for the Syracuse Housing Authority and Vonsere as an aide in the Syracuse City School District.

The couple gave $100 weekly to the City of Refuge, Restoration and Healing, a Syracuse church, according to the bankruptcy records.

Miles and his wife owed $52,000 for two mortgages at the time of their bankruptcy, according to court records. Their house on South Avenue was worth $49,000 at the time, according to court records. Their primary mortgage was with Countrywide Home Lending, one of the most predatory lenders during the housing market crash.

The family’s other debts were credit card bills and the loans for their vehicles — a minivan and an 11-year-old sedan. They owed more on both than the vehicles were worth.

Miles didn’t lose his home in the bankruptcy because it was worth less than $150,000. The family was able to keep their minivan, but the couple’s sedan, worth a little more than $1,000, was repossessed when their case was closed in June 2008, according to court records.

Among their few assets were their weddings bands, worth $100 for both.

In June, the Mileses separated. Robert Miles said he wonders whether the lottery winnings would’ve changed that.

“Maybe life would’ve been better for her and me,” he said.

Throughout the nightmare of bankruptcy, Miles knew he should've been a

multimillionaire, able to pay off all their debts.

“It was tough, man,” he said. “They did me wrong.”

Contact John O'Brien at jobrien@syracuse.com or 315-470-2187.