You can’t buy happiness with £10 million – but you can buy a lot of stuff, and some may say that’s the same thing.
But One Lottery Winner Who Received just that much Wishes he had Never Won.
When Mark Lipsham’s numbers appeared on the Auckland, New Zealand, Powerball in 2017, it was his fortunate day.
He began to “dream numbers” in the weeks before his victory, which he recorded and used to select his lottery numbers.
The following day after winning, the 53-year-old truck driver resigned his job without realizing the internal hardships he was going to experience.
“I found that to be very difficult and it lead me to a point of issues,” Mark told news.com.au, “problems with myself because I wasn’t operating how I normally operated.”
He remembered becoming “depressed, stressed, and frustrated” as others began to anticipate freebies from the lottery winner.
Despite receiving the substantial lump sum of money, Mark kept living in his modest house and decided against using it to make any impulsive large purchases while he worried about how to manage that amount of money.
The father of two was introduced to someone who “supposedly knew about money” by a neighbour two years after his historic victory. This person charged him £60,000 to counsel him on his health, relationships, legal issues, and finances.
Mark allegedly told him they were “extremely pricey and loves to be paid when they ask for it” before paying them for their services.
The Aftermath
When Mark’s financial situation improved, he decided to invest in real estate. The former truck driver claims to have provided the advisor over £1.5 million in December of the same year to make acquisitions on his behalf.
The advisor declined to talk to Mark after he had been on the road for a few months with his girls and said the purchases were subject to delays.
When Mark realized his bank balance had fallen to just £6.2 million, he severed his professional relationship with his helper.
“In the end, it really wasn’t assistance at all,” he told the New Zealand Herald, “I actually got tricked and out of quite a bit of money.”
MARK lipsham, 2017The former soldier filed a lawsuit in an effort to recover the £1.5 million that the advisor is said to have defrauded him off.
The Freelancing Agreement he signed for their services was later shown to have either been faked or purchased from an unauthorized source, according to evidence presented in court in Auckland.
The two have finally been able to settle their disagreement out of court.