US judge orders authorities to hand $395K in funds to duped lottery winner

A district judge says nearly $400,000 seized from the accounts of a man who stole a Texas maintenance worker’s lottery ticket must be handed to the scammed jackpot winner.

Authorities are searching for the convenience store clerk who they believe stole the ticket from Willis Willis when he asked for confirmation that he had won $1 million. Pankaj Joshi is believed to have fled to his native Nepal after receiving a check for $750,000.

Austin police and the Travis County Attorney’s Office have seized or frozen about $395,000 from Joshi’s accounts and gifts to his relatives in the US.

On Tuesday the judge ordered those funds to be given to Willis, who says he wants to pay off medical bills, pay his daughter’s college tuition and buy new golf clubs.