It is everyone’s dream to win the lottery. Yet with so few people ever having won the lottery, how could one man possibly select the winning numbers fourteen times in a row? Well, not only is it possible, it actually happened, but it takes a lot of dedication to the moneymaking game. Stefan Mandel is the man who formed a hugely profitable formula that ended up with him being wanted or unwelcome in a number of countries. How exactly did he manage to cheat a seemingly random system? Was it worth it? Did he do anything wrong? Read on and decide for yourselves.
14 Times Lottery Winner
Mid-20th Century Living
Our story begins in Romania, during the 1950s. This was a nation ruined by the oppressive and incompetent communist regime of the time. The then young Mandel was working at an industrial mining business as an economist, an occupation he hated. Despite having a growing family, the mineworker had very little money with which to support them. The man was only earning eighty-eight dollars a month! He was, however, a massively talented mathematics whizz, a genius he would use for immense profit.
Mid 20th Century Living
Intelligence Comes at a Cost
Despite his amazing mathematical abilities, he simply couldn’t find a solution for his rising debt and incoming financial collapse. Trying to hold off the wrecking financial practices of communism in the aftermath of the second world war was no easy task. Or so one would think. Mandel then turned his attention to lottery tickets. After watching how the system progressed, as well as the mathematics involved with its results, he was soon putting his brilliant mind to paper. But how could one cheat a completely random lottery system with math?
Intelligence Comes At A Cost
A Winning Formula
Mandel began putting his mathematical abilities to the Fibonacci Sequence, a mathematical code written by a mathematician called Leonardo Fibonacci from the 1200s. It wasn’t long before Stefan had his lottery-breaking algorithm down in writing. His next step was to invite three of his brightest friends to his house. He pitched the formula to them, one he called, “combinatorial condensation”. He boasted to his friends that this formula could accurately estimate five out of six of the lottery’s next winning digits, which it amazingly did!
A Winning Formula
Limiting His Losses
Now, he told his friends, there was only one number left to predict. There would now only be thousands of statistical outcomes to select from instead of millions. His friends didn’t need a lot of convincing, they were impressed by their odd friend’s calculations and put their faith in him. Over the next four years, the four men would strive towards cracking the lottery code! But how would all this although slightly shifty work, but certainly all within the limits of the law at the time, lead him to be wanted in three continents?
Limiting His Losses
Pooling their Resources
The poor schemers just had one problem. One big, money shaped one. They simply did not have the cash needed to fund such an ambitious scheme. They could not purchase all of the ticket combinations needed. This did not prevent their ambition, however, as they went ahead and hatched a plan to secure the second lottery prize.
Pooling Their Resources
Ploughing on Towards Second Place
So, the hunt began for all the potentially second-place ranking tickets. Incredibly, their efforts paid off on a level that even the brainy schemers could not have imagined. In just four years’ time, the men had actually made it to first place! The group had secured eighteen years’ worth of income in just a single day. Stefan had bigger plans in mind, however, ones on a global level!
Ploughing On Towards Second Place
Goodbye, Romania
Stefan took his portion of the winnings, collected his family and left the communism-wrecked Romania and his terrible job at the mine behind. Of course, escaping the iron clutches of communism was not so simple, with Mandel having to bribe foreign ministry officials. His next destination was to be Israel for a while, before heading to Australia, where he would take up his newfound occupation: cheating the lottery! Stefan further improved on his winning formula, making it simpler. He also raised the stakes.
Goodbye Romania
Reach for the Sky
Fast-forwarding to the 80s, where Stefan and his family soon gained Australian citizenship and an unmatched access to the British commonwealth’s international lottery system. He now focused on the privately-owned UK lottery system, shaping his formula to suit its structure. Stefan’s new objective was to patiently wait out the growing jackpot’s buildup until it reached its peak. He could then successfully spend a lot of money buying winning tickets, while still turning a good profit. While this plan looked good on paper, it had an obvious flaw. How was he to gather all the winning tickets from across the country?
Reach For The Sky
Automatic Success
Stefan would prove to be a highly practical genius, one who took advantage of the simple technology he had available to him at the time. Part of his scheme was to have loads of printers, all linked up to a computer program, which would then print lottery slips already containing the existing winning groupings. This required constant sorting of all the tickets’ receipts to keep track of everything. Keep reading to know how exactly he pulled off one winning streak after another. Obviously, Mandel couldn’t do all this alone.
Automatic Success
Mandel the Master
He needed people to fund his operations, as well as do all the footwork involved in purchasing winning tickets. It wasn’t long before he had convinced many people to send him money and complete his difficult orders. These winning combinations would be sent to him by his ticket-buying foot soldiers. Luckily for Stefan, there were no laws against doing this (at the time). This meant that there were practically no obstacles in his path to phenomenal riches! At least for a while, however.
The Lively Romanian
A Dozen Big Wins
Stefan’s money-spinning scheme would win him the lottery twelve times! He would then divide the winnings among his backers and army of ticket buyers. His sensational winning streak didn’t go unnoticed, however, as the Australian government eventually caught wind of the strange Romanian’s mysterious desire for winning the lottery. Obviously, the government would not stand for this immigrant draining their nation’s lottery winnings unchallenged. It was then that they decided to sit down and design a law that would prove to be Stefan’s first real challenge.
A Dozen Big Wins
The Australian Government Fights Back
Mandel then came under the inspection of the Australian government. There was an entire division of policymakers dedicated to combatting his merciless lottery domination. Not surprisingly, given that the statistics tycoon was so bold as to inform Australian lottery officers that he planned on buying up all the number possibilities! The first of the laws passed involved limiting the number of lottery tickets that an individual could purchase. Luckily, Stefan had an entire army at his disposal!
The Australian Government Fights Back
Beyond a One-Man Operation
Luckily for Mandel, he had a huge base of recruits with which to evade the ticket buying laws. He began by sharing ticket responsibility among five official henchmen. When the government imposed a ban on crowds purchasing the entirety of the ticket stocks, he then established a thriving lottery firm.
Beyond A One Man Operation
The Scheme Looks to Greener Pastures
This organized scheme would work for a while, before the Australian government matched his complex organization’s cleverness by passing laws which limited their freedom. It was following his dozenth win that he decided a whole new feeding ground was sorely in need. Stefan was the kind of man whose hunting grounds knew no bounds. After the Australian government made it too difficult for him and his crew to operate, he began looking into the rest of the world’s lottery systems.
The Scheme Looks To Greener Pastures
The School of Lottery Winning
America was a country that hadn’t caught on to Stefan’s style of busy lottery fixing, clearly perfect for invasion! The possibilities were limitless, he just had to put his cheating genius to work looking for the most vulnerable American lottery available to him. Stefan certainly did his homework, obsessively studying the various lottery systems. In time, he discovered that the Virginia lottery system was ripe for the taking!
The School Of Lottery Winning
The Fortunes of Virginia
This kind of lottery system had a mere 7.1 million statistical possibilities, the kind of numbers which Stefan could easily crunch and sort (and then purchase)! The tickets in this state were also among the most affordable within America. With 7.1 million tickets now needing to be purchased, Mandel obviously needed to raise more money than most wannabe business owners could imagine securing in their lifetimes. For this, he would need to call upon his existing group of supporters back in Australia.
The Fortunes Of Virginia
The Mandel Organization Grows
Mandel already had a large following, earning many of them a lot of money. However, he would need to get a lot more backing if this new scheme was to succeed. Mandel wasn’t just pitching some misleading scam to his potential backers. His system had been, for a long time now, producing millions upon millions of dollars for everyone involved. Most people wouldn’t decline the chance to score on such a crazy level!
The Mandel Organization Grows
Mandel Bides His Time
He wasn’t just relying on foolproof mathematics in his claim, he could make a lot of people wealthy. Or so he claimed. We would later find that Mandel wasn’t all he cracked up to be. And so, he was able to quickly collect the backing that he needed, with an incredible 2,500 backers, each putting in a total of $2,500. He was now ready to begin taking the Virginia lottery for a ride!
Mandel Bides His Time
Loopholes upon Loopholes
Despite what one may believe about him by now, Mandel did not take chances. He made sure that he only ever executed his schemes when the timing was right, meaning in this case that the targeted jackpot was at its maximum profitability and that he was certain of success. It was during 1992, after two years of gathering his resources, that he decided that the jackpot of the Virginia lottery was worth hitting. He and his crew went to work on their biggest take yet!
Loopholes Upon Loopholes
A Rare Opportunity Exploited
As mentioned before, the state of Virginia was missing all the laws which steadily restricted Stefan and his army’s ability for lottery rigging (which were introduced in the first place due to his scheming). So, he could practically restart his operation and begin taking this vulnerable lottery system for a ride. There we no laws prohibiting Virginians from printing lottery tickets from their homes…
A Rare Opportunity Exploited
Modern Technology meets Classic Plotting
What separated the Virginian lottery from the rest of America was its allowance for home-printed tickets. Anyone who supplied lottery ticket centers with these individually created tickets could purchase their submission, without fail. This would prove to be a fatal flaw that Mandel and his team would cleverly exploit. Obviously, technology and transportation had come a long way since the genius plotter had began his operation decades ago, allowing his scheme to literally go on full steam ahead!
Modern Technology Meets Classic Plotting
An Odd Request
Mandel finally had his tickets in hand, or rather in cargo containers, wherever one keeps 7.1 million lottery tickets. It was then time to bargain with Virginian retailers regarding him and his team’s wholesale purchasing of the state’s lottery tickets. After a lot of backwards and forwards, he somehow managed to practically convince Virginia to hand over its lottery to him and his team! Now it was time to deal with the next issue at hand, however, how on earth were they going to pay for everything?
An Odd Request
Truckloads of Cash
So, how was Stefan going to enable the logistics of nationwide, wholesale lottery ticket buying (we know, this story is getting crazier and crazier)? He couldn’t employ a trucking company to move loads of money across the state, that would be impractical. Instead, he decided to go for the far more convenient option of banking. He deposited millions of hopeful dollars into banks, then simply got his crewmembers to issue checks to all the lottery ticket-holding stores. Things were going smoothly for Mandel, with one disastrous hurdle approaching on the horizon.
Truckloads Of Cash
Tickets for Mandel
Mandel obviously had his minions working tirelessly on the hunt for each ticket available. One can only imagine the countless people employed in his service driving and running around the whole of Virginia, snatching up all of the tickets in a frenzy. It wasn’t long before their targeted shops started facing a ticket shortage, before simply ceasing to be purchasable, nationwide. Stefan now began to panic properly, one of the few times the confident Romanian had been at a loss as to what to do next.
Tickets For Mandel
Reaching a Stalemate
What on earth were they all going to do now? The lottery syndicate still required more than a million tickets to be on the safe side. The team had always relied on Stefan for guidance and instruction. How was he going to satisfy the concerns of his thousands of backers? It most likely meant a prison sentence for Mandel if he could not pay back his investors, who would most likely open a very strong fraud case against him. All that they could do now was wait for the big day.
Reaching A Stalemate
Victorious, Nonetheless
Regardless of their ticket shortage, Mandel and his team still did enough to get them the win, not just for first place, but every prize involved. They had searched Virginia of tickets to the point that it wasn’t possible for anyone else to win! So, what did Mandel ensure for his crew? The jackpot measured in at $27 million. Then there were multiple second and third place prizes, as well as thousands of smaller placings!
Victorious Nonetheless
How did He Do it?!
In order to better understand how Mandel cracked the big win, let us take a closer look at what he and his followers did leading up to it. So, we know that Mandel put all his investors’ money into checks. This was something he achieved by working with Lowe Lippmann, an accounting firm which then shifted the millions of dollars into a Boston bank called Crestar Bank. The money was then divided into cashier checks worth ten thousand dollars each. Finally, he started approaching Virginian retailers to organize the wholesale ticket purchases. For this, he would need a second in command. But who was bold enough to take on Mandel’s crazy schemes?
How Did He Do It
The General: Anithalee Alex
Anithalee Alex was a real charmer, someone highly regarded as a sweet talker of note. This war veteran, former Rolls Royce dealer and then oil prospector would prove to be Mandel’s sorely needed ace in the hole. The two needed each other in equal measures of desperation. He was facing a massive bankruptcy charge when his old buddy swooped in at the nick of time!
The General Anithalee Alex
A Likely Partnership
Alex had just emerged from a crushing bankruptcy case, which he had been summoned to following nearly half a million dollars’ worth of debt and a total of sixteen overdrawn credit cards! The debt expert was obviously desperate for any moneymaking scheme. Mandel would prove to be his ticket to riches!
A Likely Partnership
Grinding Groundwork
Upon agreeing to Stefan’s terms, Alex was immediately put to work in this unending operation. It would prove to be the most difficult of Alex’s missions. He now had to organize the collecting and payment of well over one million lottery tickets, across hundreds of Virginian retailers. Just days before the big jackpot’s fateful taking, Alex and the other cronies were working tirelessly to secure their win.
Grinding Groundwork
Alex Goes into Overdrive
With just 72 hours left before to the jackpot taking, Alex now headed to a Holiday Inn within Norfolk, where he would set up a headquarters. It was in a nearby CBD that Alex combined with thirty-five agents, the majority of whom were certified accountants. They were each passed bundles of tens of thousands of lottery tickets and matching valued cashier checks. Now, it was time for the risky footwork.
Alex Goes Into Overdrive
The Frantic 48 Hours
The team didn’t sleep for forty-eight hours. Their mission was to steadily hit 125 shops throughout Virginia with the goal of purchasing and managing their massive amounts of lottery tickets. Obviously, store owners were suspicious when asked individually for hundreds of thousands of lottery tickets!
The Frantic 48 Hours
Witness Accounts
Shop owners can still remember how Mandel’s minions ran about their towns, madly buying up all the lottery tickets. Many owners reported just how crazy they thought these people were. That being said, they were bringing in a lot of business for the owners and would not turn away a sale of hundreds of thousands of lottery tickets! The team was now getting very close to meeting their targets!
Witness Accounts
The Inevitable Crash
The hopeful syndicate finally ran into an obstacle that might have wrecked their entire operation. The infamous lotto ticket shortage! One of the retailers selling tickets at wholesale became swamped and decided to pull out of the lottery system only hours before the big jackpot reveal. This cut over one hundred thousand tickets out of Mandel’s stock. It was now clear that their gamble’s chances were looking grim…
The Inevitable Crash
Losing Statistics
Mandel and his team were in a crisis. They had come so close to securing every ticket needed but were now missing out on close to one million winning number combinations. As we know, Mandel’s plan was only foolproof when all the winning numbers tickets were in his possession. After all that time, work and money, he had seemingly failed. Everything was now hanging onto fate – something Mandel didn’t usually leave things up to!
Losing Statistics
In Fate’s Hands
Mandel was now becoming overwhelmed with doubt. His chances at winning the jackpot, once assured to be foolproof, were now running at a low statistical chance. He knew of other individuals who had tried purchasing masses of lottery tickets without success. There was an elderly person from Sacramento who purchased tens of thousands of tickets, as well as a tech whizz who acquired even more, both having failed. Even in the event that Stefan would win, there were still so many losing outcomes for him to consider!
In Fates Hands
Competition Arises
Even if Stefan won the main jackpot, he would still make a loss, considering the thousands of other prizes he and his team had targeted. This would mean that he would not have enough winnings to compensate all his employees and investors and still make a profit. Everything was riding on a full house taking!
Competition Arises
Lady Luck Smiles on Mandel
It was late one night in February, close to midnight, that Stefan, Alex and the rest of the crew watched the lottery draw with their hearts pumping. Suddenly, their worries were instantly turned to joy. Despite his fears, Mandel and his group cleaned the entire Virginia lottery out, winning every single attached prize, including the massive jackpot of twenty-seven million dollars. Unluckily for Stefan, however, his party would be interrupted by some very powerful uninvited guests.
Lady Luck Smiles On Mandel
Rain on the Parade
As with the Australian lottery authorities, Mandel would end up inviting investigation and criticism from the Virginian lottery leadership. People simply do not like being “cheated” out of their lottery winnings! It was then Ken Thorson, the then director of the Virginia State Lottery, who would head a legal challenge to Mandel and his cronies’ monumental win. However, had Stefan Mandel actually broken any laws?
Rain On The Parade
The Director Weighs in
The difficulty with prosecuting Mandel came with the fact that there were no actual laws prohibiting him and his team’s efforts and victory. Stefan was not stupid, he would not run illegal practices on such a massive scale, endangering the lives of so many of his employees. Still, Thorson would try his best to nab him!
The Director Weighs In
A Million-Dollar Investigation
Thorson’s rather optimistic challenge to Mandel and his team’s claims came down to them not being very patriotic. Ken believed that it was the right of each individual American citizen to participate in the lottery and that it was unamerican for a whole crew to try to rig the system or buy all the tickets. This was simply a scenario which they were unprepared to deal with in Virginia, and it showed with how the investigation proceeded.
A Million Dollar Investigation
Bringing Out the Big Guns
Mandel didn’t just have Thorson to worry about, however, as it seemed that the full force of American investigative power was about to fall onto his head. His case would be investigated by more than a dozen global agencies, not to mention the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Australian Securities Commission!
Bringing Out The Big Guns
The Big Guns Misfire
Even with all this international investigative power and dedication, no one could actually pin a crime on Stefan or any of his allies. They hadn’t done anything which went against federal, national or even international law. Stefan walked free, not hesitating to express his hate for Thorson, calling him an overconfident secretary! We know what Stefan thought of Thorson, but how did the rest of the world view his courage?
The Big Guns Misfire
Australian Celebrity Status
Mandel turned out to become quite the legend back in Australia. It seemed the local populations were very impressed with his ability to cheat a system that most people could only ever dream of winning. As for his standing with American authorities, however, Thorson’s opinions obviously differed slightly.
Australian Celebrity Status
Thorson Weighs In
While he was surprisingly impressed with Mandel and his syndicate’s determination and dedication to fix the lottery, it was Thorson’s genuine wish that Stefan and company should leave the United States and never return. Unless another state’s lottery was to be taken for a ride! So, what was next on Stefan’s ambitious to-do list?
Thorson Weighs In
He Got what he Came For
Thorson got his wish granted when Stefan, not surprisingly, decided to pack up his organization and leave. It was his style, after all, to target vulnerable lottery systems and then leave after the authorities wizened up to his antics. The Jewish-Romanian and his family went back to Israel. It was all well and good that Stefan should disappear into the sunset, but what did his investors get out of this whole shebang?
He Got What He Came For
Investing in Failure
Stefan might have been a lottery-breaking genius, but turns out there was a major streak of dishonesty in him. Remember those 2500 backers we mentioned earlier? Well, they did not stand on the winning side at all. In fact, they were mightily ripped off by Stefan, whose promises and agreements all dissolved, despite how much money they had won together. What they all ended up getting was hugely disappointing!
Investing In Failure
Broken Promises
Said investors would merely rake in an average of $1400.00 each. This was a massive loss for them, only being paid back just over half of their initial investments. While a lot of people did profit greatly off Stefan’s designs, his main backers came off second best. This kind of treatment would come to spell Stefan’s ultimate downfall!
Broken Promises
The Lion’s Share
Obviously, Mandel lined his pockets nicely. He awarded himself a mastermind charge of nearly two million dollars! This was pocket change compared to the fourteen million dollars he made from the sale of his twenty-year allowance to an American insurance firm. Even after the costs of his operation were covered, such as ticket purchases, he was left with a whole lot of cash. So, what did he do with it all?
The Lions Share
Offshore Accounts
If we look at accounts of this wild story, we find that Stefan directed his earnings towards a fund based in Hong Kong. This would prove to be a clumsy move for Stefan, who despite being a mathematical genius, had little skill in investment. He should have stuck to lottery hijacking, as his new financial schemes would drive his bank accounts into the ground.
Offshore Accounts
International Rambling and Ruin
Mandel would spend the next few years bouncing from one failed financial scheme to the next. Nothing was working out for him anymore and it seemed like he had used up all his luck in the many lottery wins. It was in the mid-90s that Stefan was finally forced to declare for bankruptcy. Was this the end for Mandel?
International Rambling And Ruin
The Lively Romanian
This didn’t prevent him from scheming, however. It seemed that the once manipulative and patient lottery genius was engaging in very risky and unsafe investments, many of which weren’t kosher. He was now trying his best to swindle people out of money, at least that is what some sources claim.
The Lively Romanian
Disputed Legal Repercussions
Some publications insist that Mandel landed himself in legal hot water when he tried to cut Israeli co-investors out of a deal, slamming him in jail for ten months. However, his attorney recently countered such claims, stating that Stefan’s case was dropped for leaky evidence and claims. If his attorney was being honest, Stefan never spent a day behind bars for all of his international wheeling and dealing. One can only imagine what Stefan really was up to during this time… or can they?
Disputed Legal Repercussions
Actions and Consequences
If his attorney is to be believed, then Stefan truly is a financial scheme mastermind. At least in terms of always staying in the grey area of the law and dodging handcuffs! We just wonder if any of the countless people who he conned out of money have ever plotted against him. We all know how money can lead people to do terrible things! Surprisingly, Stefan has come into old age relatively unharmed. Yet, not so surprisingly maybe, extremely lonely and isolated.
Actions And Consequences
Island Life
Where is the now elderly plotter these days? One can find him resting on the sunny beaches of Vanuatu. This isolated and almost unknown south-pacific island in proximity to Australia is the perfect hiding place for a villainous retiree. The last few attempts at contacting him have revealed that he is now out of the lottery game, for good! But what about his partner in crime, Alex?
Island Life
Romantic Reminiscing
Anithalee, Stefan’s former second-in-command, followed Stefan’s disappearing act. The general of Stefan’s ticket-buying army now lives in Illinois, in an undisclosed location. He fondly remembers the crazy times he spent with Stefan, however, bearing him no ill will. He probably was one of the few people who actually got something out of Stefan! This story, Alex claims, is beyond anything a Hollywood blockbuster could come up with. Even Steven Spielberg would struggle to wrap his head around the details of Mandel’s winning formula. Many math boffins have tried their best to figure his algorithms out.
Romantic Reminiscing
To the Grave
Mandel’s formula has been mostly pieced together by experts, but the finer parts are something he will take with him to his grave. If you want to follow in his footsteps, you might have to take up a mathematics course! Still, many of his critics doubt whether his algorithm would even work today, considering how much more complex and fool-proof American lotteries have become. Not only that, but unlike then, many of the things Stefan did then, are now illegal. Much of this increase in security is mostly thanks to Stefan’s meddling!
To The Grave
Stefan the Lawmaker
Believe it or not, Stefan’s conquering of the Virginia lottery triggered a nationwide revision and improvement of America’s individual lottery systems. This was to ensure that people like Mandel and his team would never effectively buy out a lottery again. This was probably one of the few good things to come out of Mandel’s plots! So, what advice can Stefan leave us with, regarding the pursuit of wealth?
Stefan The Lawmaker
Life is Full of Risks
Stefan was once quoted saying that risk was a part of life. That even the most boring of tasks involve lethal risk. He is a man who embraces it enthusiastically, claiming that the numbers are always in his favor. He also knew the law and made sure to stay in its grey area, ensuring that he cannot be accused of any crimes. So, you might be wondering then, what are your chances of following in Mandel’s wealthy footsteps?
Life Is Full Of Risks
Can Mandel’s Cunning be Imitated
We’re sorry to say that even if you managed to convince a good amount of people to invest in your Mandel-inspired strategies, that they simply wouldn’t win. The outcomes are just too complex in modern lottery systems for anyone to even attempt cracking them. You also can’t print tickets from home anymore. If you want to try winning millions of dollars, you will just have to buy a ticket, or a few, just don’t try to buy them all!
Can Mandels Cunning Be Imitated