The Greatest Conglomerate Ever With the American Lottery

4. 2.8 trillion!

Still drunk, I slowly woke up to the sound of a woman’s voice coming from somewhere in the middle of my lucid dream.

“International call!”

Tiri-ri-ri-ri!

“International call!”

I had muted the ringing, so I could only hear the woman’s stiff voice loudly.

“Okay, A.C., what are you talking about?”

Annoyed, I grabbed my phone from the bedside table.

“It’s an international call!”

What? An international call?

What could possibly happen to me to warrant an international call?

There is no such place.

Then a thought flashed through my mind.

No way.

“Oh, no.”

I said no, but my heart began to beat faster and faster.

Ti-ri-ri-ri-ri!

“It’s an international call!”

I looked at the number and realized that it was an international call because of the elongation.

I didn’t know what it was, but I answered it.

I thought it might be a spam call, but I didn’t want to hit the answer button and have something weird happen.

It’s not like I have money to lose.

Cautiously, I put my index finger on receive.

“Hello?”

– Hello?

My Korean.

“Yes, where are you?”

– Is this Mr. Kang Kang-sik?

It was a man’s voice, neither young nor old, with a slight Park Chan-ho accent and a hint of excitement.

“Yes, I’m Mr. Cheol-Sik, where are you?”

– hahahahaha! Hello, Mr. Cheol-Sik, this is the United States.

“What? America?”

No? No?

My heart began to pump faster.

– Yes, I’m Manhoon Lee, the US Lotto representative in California, USA.

“And?”

Ohhhhh!

God! Buddha! Jesus!

– Let me start with the conclusion: Congratulations, Mr. Kang, you have won the first prize in the US Powerball!

“…”

What, I won?

I won the American lotto?

And the first prize?

For a moment, my thinking stopped.

I’m dazed.

– Hello? Hello? Mr. Kang?

Is this a dream?

Yeah, it’s probably a dream.

How could this happen to me?

hahahahaha!

Then why is it so vivid?

Mate!

I punch myself in the cheek with all my might.

It hurts.

I hit it so hard, it hurts like hell.

So, this isn’t a dream?

– Hello? Hello?

“Ouch!”

I tried to say something, but no words came out.

– Hello?

“Cough! Yes, yes! Talk to me, I’m listening!”

– hahahaha! I get it. I’m in a state of excitement myself, so imagine my surprise.

“This is for real, okay? You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”

– It’s real. Mr. Cheol-Sik Kang has won the first prize in the Powerball drawing. If you don’t believe me, all you need to do is scan the ticket we sent to Mr. Kang’s email and search for the winning Powerball numbers.

It’s real!

“Hey, how much is that prize and how many people shared it?”

– Oh, the jackpot kept growing right up until the last minute, but you didn’t check, did you?

“Last I heard on the news, it was $2.1 billion—.”

– There was a last-minute buying spree, and the jackpot grew even more: $2.54 billion, to put it in perspective. At today’s exchange rate of 1,102 won to the dollar, that’s a little over $2.79 trillion! And, best of all, I’m in first place! hahahahaha!

“2 trillion? 2.7 trillion? That’s all by yourself?”

– That’s right, we’re breaking it down into millionths, so it’s just 2.8 trillion.

2.8 trillion?

2.8 trillion?

What the hell is 2.8 trillion?

Ah! 2.8 trillion is 2.8 trillion.

But how much is that?

It was such a huge, unrealistic number that I kept repeating in my head, “How much is this? in my head.

But, really, how much is this?

– Hello? Mr. Kang?

Let’s take a moment.

I felt like I needed to regain my composure and continue the conversation.

“Oh, yes. Mr. Lee. I’m freaking out right now, so could you call me back in about 30 minutes?”

– hahahahaha, sure, by all means, I’ll call you back in 30 minutes.

“Okay, thank you.”

I hung up the phone, took out a cigarette with a trembling hand, and asked.

Ah! You can’t smoke in the house.

I went outside and lit the cigarette, but my hands were shaking and it took me several tries before I was able to light it.

“Whoosh!”

As the nicotine passed through my airway and into my lungs, my hands stopped shaking.

First place?

First place in the lotto?

First place in the American lotto?

Is this a true story?

2.8 trillion?

How many years would I need to earn that on my 30 million won a year salary?

I immediately calculated it on my smartphone.

The answer?

93,333 years?

What is this? Isn’t my math wrong?

I tried again, and the answer was the same.

It was then that I realized how insignificant I was.

I’d spent nearly 100,000 years without spending a dime to get to 2.8 trillion.

It was ridiculous.

What?

Not while I’m doing this.

I was panicking and doing hard math when I should have been checking the authenticity.

I quickly pulled myself together and opened the email.

When I opened my inbox, I saw several emails from US Lotto.

First, a congratulatory email, then a deposit confirmation.

Then, a confirmation of purchase, followed by a completed purchase every day.

When I opened the confirmation email, I saw a scan of the ticket I had purchased, and it said that I retained all ownership and rights to the ticket with the order number.

I then googled the Powerball numbers and found the winning numbers.

1 jackpot winner california

I carefully checked the winning numbers against a scan of the ticket I had purchased.

There it is!

The last one!

The number I bought manually!

It had won.

“Yay, yay, yay!”

I screamed, pumping my fist in the air as the realization finally hit me.

Passersby stared at me like I was crazy, but I didn’t care.

2.8 trillion!

Not 2.8 trillion, but 2.8 trillion I’d run around naked for 280 million won!

I took another drag on my cigarette and headed back into the house.

“International call!”

“Hello?”

– Yes, it’s Manhoon Lee from US Lotto! How are you, have you calmed down?

“Yes, I smoked a few cigarettes and calmed down a bit.”

– hahahahaha! That’s great, can we have a serious conversation now?

“Yes, of course. Oh, but before we do, there’s one more thing I wanted to ask you.”

– Yes, feel free to ask.

“I know I won, but can I really get this? I’ve heard a lot of people say you can’t get it on behalf of a buyer.”

– Let me start with the bottom line: you can get it 100%, otherwise I wouldn’t be calling you so excited to tell you I’m crazy.

“Then why are they saying that?”

– Well, there were a lot of things that were misrepresented. There were some people who were really scamming, who were pretending that they hadn’t bought a ticket and were buying it on behalf of someone else, and then there were some people who were saying that the physical lottery tickets were not allowed to cross the U.S. border.

“Aha, physical lottery tickets can’t cross the U.S. border?”

– Yes, that’s clearly stated in the Lottery’s regulations, and nowhere else in the Lottery’s regulations does it say, “It’s illegal to buy on behalf of someone else. is illegal.

Good, good, good.

“Oh, okay, thanks for the clarification.”

– hahahaha! You’re welcome, and by the way, I know there’s a lot of talk about buy-to-let sites stealing from you, but that’s just more bullsh*t. The US lottery isn’t like the Korean lotto, where you can just turn in your ticket and they’ll pay you right away.

“So?”

– Whether it’s Mega Millions or Powerball, the amount of money involved is so high that the lottery is always thinking about legal challenges, so there’s a lot of vetting and a complicated process. And that’s why it usually takes five to seven weeks to pay out. Think about it. If a buyer with a scan was intercepted on your site, would you let them?”

“Absolutely not!”

Never!

You’re blowing your life away.

– Yes, you’re right. It’s a world where you can call the FBI from South Korea with the click of a translator. I don’t care how much money we have, why would we do something that would get us hounded by the FBI for the rest of our lives for being crazy when we know the procedure?

“Aha!”

– Besides, and this is just for Mr. Steele, but this lottery proxy business makes a lot of money, especially when it’s fully established, and at least the founding members are living pretty well, so why would we commit a federal crime just so we can live more luxuriously? In the U.S., for that offense, you should be prepared to spend the rest of your life in prison. That’s pretty harsh for an economic criminal.

It’s certainly a compelling argument.

I didn’t think I’d do anything that would cause me to leave my stable life and be hounded by the FBI for the rest of my life.

I felt more and more relieved.

“Yeah, I hear what you’re saying. I was secretly worried, but I’m relieved.”

– hahahaha! Well, let me tell you about the process and some things you’ll need to decide, Mr. Kang.

“Okay, go ahead.”

– First of all, you know that the US takes a lot of taxes, right? I checked, and you just signed up for the first time yesterday.

“I don’t know, but I know they take a pretty penny.”

– Not quite, but a lot. The jackpot is $2.54 billion, and federal taxes are 30% for foreign nationals. No, but before we do that, let me ask you something: You can take it in a lump sum, or you can take it in 30-year installments. You can take your time deciding, but what will you do?

“All at once!”

I’m taking it in 30-year installments because you know what I’m going to be like in 30 years?

This is unconditional! Unconditional!

– I knew it, so I’ll just tell you how much you’ll actually get in a lump sum.

“Yes, please.”

– First off, there’s taxes, but when you take the lump sum, you’ll lose about 40% of your winnings.

“Forty percent?”

Wow, that’s a lot of money.

– “Yes, that’s right. It’s tied to US interest rates, so it goes up and down, but it’s roughly 40%. And then on the second 60% that’s left, as a foreign national, you take 30% for federal taxes. And then there’s state taxes, originally, but California, where we are, waives state taxes.

“Oooh, that’s great!”

– hahahaha! Yeah, so if you take all those taxes out, you’re going to get $1.067 billion, which is roughly $1.176 trillion.

“Ah!”

What is this?

What are they taking away?

It’s like, “Wow, that’s a lot of money,” and then all of a sudden it’s in the low trillions.

It’s ridiculous even if I think about it.

– It’s a lot of money, but it’s still close to $1.1 billion, so don’t feel bad for me, hahahahaha!

“That’s right.”

– By the way, Mr. Kang is Korean, so he has one more question.

“Again?”

What the hell?

– Since you’re Korean, you must pay income tax in Korea, right?

“What? No. Don’t we have a double taxation agreement?”

– Of course you do, but even with a double taxation agreement, you’ll still have to pay the difference in income taxes as determined by Korea.

“How much is that?”

Now I was getting a little annoyed.

– If it is recognized as a miscellaneous income tax, it is 30% national tax and 3% local tax, like Korean lotto, so it is 33%, so you only need to pay 3% more—.

“Eh, that’s about right.”

– But unfortunately, I think it’s better to forget about other income tax.

“No, why not?”

– We’ve been looking into it for a long time, and the interpretation of Korean accountants and tax officials is that other income tax is an enumerated tax, so if it’s not listed there, it doesn’t apply. There have been cases in the past.

“What do you mean, past cases?”

– “Do you remember the one where the mother-in-law of a popular talent with a trident or some kind of spear won a jackpot in the U.S.?

“Ah, yes, I remember. They were talking about it on the air.”

– Yeah, it was said in that case that she didn’t get recognized as miscellaneous income tax and got hit with comprehensive income tax, though I’m not sure.

“…”

I’m speechless.

– So, it looks like you’re going to have to pay comprehensive income tax, which in Korea is 40% on anything over 500 million, so I think you’re going to have to pay something in the low $100 million range.

“No such—.”

I didn’t want to say that there are some cases that suck.

But this isn’t one of them, is it?

I paid my own money to buy a lottery ticket in the U.S., and I won, and now the government wants to take 100 million dollars from me because I did something for them?