General News of Thursday, 10 May 2001
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are two factions among Ghanaian taxi drivers at Hartsfield International Airport: Those who say they're millionaires. And those who say they ought to be.
A group of 14 cabbies has sued a fellow driver who organized a collective lottery pool, claiming he unfairly left them out of Friday's $90 million Big Game jackpot and kept the winnings for himself and about two dozen other drivers.
Cobb County Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs ordered the Georgia Lottery Corp. to refrain from paying out the seven-state Big Game winnings until the dispute is settled. A hearing is set for May 25.
Augustin Kouame, one of the cabbies who says he has been shut out of the winnings, took a call on his cell phone Wednesday as he ferried a passenger. But he was reluctant to talk about the lawsuit filed Monday.
"We have both sides trying to talk this out amicably before everything blows out," he said. "We're all brothers, we're all from Africa. I'm pretty sure everything might come to a successful conclusion."
Rebecca Paul, president of the Georgia Lottery Corp., said lottery officials will abide by the judge's Tuesday order. But it's a moot point for the moment, because they have no official word on who won the jackpot.
Although someone bought the winning quick-pick ticket for the Big Game in Griffin, "There has not been a winning ticket turned in," Paul said Wednesday. She said the ticket must be presented by Oct. 31 or it will be void.
Pools win about 16 percent of big jackpots, Paul said. Some groups have written agreements on how winnings will be shared.
That doesn't appear to be the case this time.
The dispute revolves around cabdriver Max
Ossei-Wasu of Austell. He collected $5 from each of 37 taxi drivers for at least two drawings, the lawsuit says.
The pool's small winnings were to be used to purchase additional tickets in future drawings for the group, the lawsuit says.
But last week, the suit contends, some drivers were left out. Although the lawsuit does not specifically say Ossei-Wasu refused to collect the money from the 14 cabbies, it says he bought the lottery tickets "notwithstanding plaintiff's offer to continue to invest still another $5 in furtherance of the joint venture."
On Friday, Ossei-Wasu hit the big one. He doesn't plan to share the winnings with those who didn't pay, the suit says.
Ossei-Wasu's daughter answered the phone at his home Wednesday, but said her father told her not to talk to anyone about the lottery. He did not return a phone message.
The purchaser of the winning ticket chose the cash option, lottery spokeswoman Parquita Nassau said. Instead of a $90 million payout over 26 years, the jackpot will be a one-time payout of $49.4 million.
Split 37 ways, that would come to $1.3 million per person. In a 23-way split, each winner would get $2.1 million.
Twenty-two of the winning cabbies are from Ghana and one is from Trinidad, said Kwame Asante, general manager of the cab company Star Organization. Asante's brother is one of the cabbies who claim they were shut out of the payoff.
Asante said about 16 of the winners work for Star.
Lottery pools among cabbies at Hartsfield International Airport are an old tradition, Asante said. Drivers wait sometimes three or four hours for a fare, he said, so there's plenty of time for networking.
He said lotteries are popular in Ghana - "big time."
Although Ghana is one of the world's poorest nations, with a per capita income of $350-$400, many Ghanaians scrape together the money to play national and private lotteries, including a state-sponsored seasonal lottery, car raffles, the national weekly lotto and a scratch-off game.
Cabbies at the Atlanta airport Wednesday buzzed over the lottery dispute.
Many said the losing cabbies shouldn't have filed a lawsuit but instead should have worked it out with their friends. Others said the winners are lying low, and they think that's smart.
"We don't want the winners to come here. It could be dangerous. Things could happen to them if people know they won a lot of money," said cab driver Al Hassan Brimah, a native of Ghana.
Driver David Hall, of Eritrea, didn't enter the pool because he buys tickets on his own.
"The winners should say, 'We'll share the money,' " Hall said. "They played together. They're out of the same country. They share the same food, and with what's happened, the lawyers will eat the money."
Felix Klugey, a 26-year Atlanta resident who is originally from Ghana, said he played the lottery with Ossei-Wasu's group three times. He felt his contributions from last Tuesday would roll over to Friday and he would have seen part of the big winnings, but he has not joined the lawsuit.
Klugey said he attended a meeting at Ossei-Wasu's house about the lottery.
"I'm one of the winners," Klugey said he told them. "And they said I wasn't. I couldn't fight it."
The lawsuit, which has been updated each day since it was filed, says Ossei-Wasu collected money starting "on or before April 24." He initially collected $5 from each person, the suit says.
No one won the jackpot on April 24, but the group did win $30. Three days later, Ossei-Wasu took that $30, collected $5 again from each driver, and created a pool to buy more tickets.
Again, no one won big money on April 27, but the group did win $15.
The lawsuit says Ossei-Wasu was required to take that $15 in winnings, collect more money and buy more tickets until somebody won the big jackpot. Until last Friday, the Big Game jackpot had rolled over 16 times without a winner.
Asante, whose brother, Gordon Wilson, was one of the 14 plaintiffs, told Wilson to drop out of the lawsuit. And Wilson says he has.
"The proper way," Asante said, "is they should have told them, 'Hey, we are part of the group. It's unfortunate we didn't play, but you should consider us.' "