Syracuse, NY -- Two Syracuse area men who claimed to be holding a $5 million lottery ticket sold at their family store were arrested this morning on charges they conspired to falsely claim the prize as their own.

District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Andy Ashkar, 34, of Camillus, and Nayel Ashkar, 36, of Cicero, were both charged with attempted second-degree grand larceny and fourth-degree conspiracy. Andy Ashkar also was charged with first-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a Class B felony carrying a maximum penalty of 25 years in state prison.

According to Fitzpatrick, there was a legitimate purchaser of the $5 million scratch-off ticket who was scammed out of the winning ticket when he went to cash it at the Ashkar family's Green Ale Market at 2208 E. Fayette St. in Syracuse in October 2006.

Fitzpatrick said the evidence gathered in recent weeks showed that Andy Ashkar was working at the family store when the real buyer brought in the ticket to be scanned to see what it was worth.

The defendant is accused of telling the customer that the ticket was a $5,000 winner, not the $5 million the scan showed it to be.

Ashkar somehow managed to come up with money to pay the ticket holder but only gave him $4,000, claiming the store was entitled to $1,000 as a cashing fee, Fitzpatrick said.

Assistant District Attorney Beth Van Doren, the prosecutor assigned to the case, said the ticket is clearly marked as a $5 million winner.



Asked how someone could be conned into thinking it was only worth $5,000, Van Doren said it might have been the person "lost track of all the zeroes" or didn't scratch off the entire ticket once he realized it was a winner. She would not say exactly what happened in this instance, however.



Asked if authorities are convinced the person they now believe was the winning ticket holder is the legitimate winner, Van Doren said they had witness testimony and were pursuing other documentation. She declined to elaborate.



In February 2009, the brothers consulted a financial adviser and began asking for advice in case they hypothetically came into a large sum of money, the DA said.

In February of this year, the brothers started making calls to state lottery officials trying to see if they could settle for a lesser amount of money if they could avoid having to hold the required public news conference about the winning ticket, Fitzpatrick said.

On March 1, the brothers showed up at the lottery office in Schenectady to present the winning ticket as their own, Fitzpatrick said.

At that point, lottery officials said they had to conduct a security investigation to verify the authenticity of the ticket and the procedure by which it was bought, Fitzpatrick said.

In mid October lottery officials "planted" a story in the media about the brothers and the $5 million ticket but also notified the District Attorney's Office of the suspicions, the DA said.

That was when the DA's office began investigating, Fitzpatrick said.

Van Doren said that after the original story appeared in the newspaper last month, people in the community were talking and appeared to know exactly what ticket was being discussed.



She said people in the community were trying to talk the original ticket holder into coming forward and laying claim to the ticket. About the same time, police were hearing the news on the street and were led to that original ticket holder, she said.

A Syracuse police detective provided key information that led authorities to the identity of the real buyer of the $5 million ticket, the prosecutor said.

That winner's identity is known to the grand jury that today voted to indict the Ashkar brothers in the plot, Fitzpatrick said. The DA said he expected the real winner's name would be publicly revealed at some point in the near future.

Andy Ashkar was arrested today at the local Romano Toyota dealership where he works and Nayel Ashkar was taken into custody at the Honda dealership where he works in Ithaca, Fitzpatrick said.

Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman refused to comment today on the Ashkars or about the real winner of the ticket. Stores that sell winning scratch-off tickets are not entitled to any portion of their customer’s winnings, she said. Scratch-off tickets do spell out how much a customer has won — either the dollar amount or the word “Jackpot” under the scratched-off area. The amount of the jackpot is given elsewhere on the card.

The Green Ale Market remains open today and is selling New York Lottery tickets. A man behind the counter declined to comment about the arrests.

Fitzpatrick said the investigation continues to determine if anyone else was involved in the plot to claim the $5 million prize.