A Russian immigrant in the United States who recently won a lottery that pays $1 million a year for life said on Tuesday she will have to move because of increasingly threatening requests for money from fellow Russians.
Yuliya Lankri, a 37-year-old mother of three from Valley Stream, New York, won New York's $1 Million A Year for Life game in late January. Her husband Gabriel, 46, gave her the winning scratch-off ticket as a gift on Hanukkah.
The woman, who will receive about $660,000 each year after taxes, told Lifenews.ru that she is looking for a new place to live because so many people are asking her for money, even though she hasn’t received any of her winnings yet.
Yuliya and Gabriel, whose house is now being equipped with video surveillance systems, said they will receive the money in monthly payments of about $55,000.
“We are afraid to fetch $660,000 at once,” the newly minted millionaire said. “Our address is available on the web; someone has also published the photographs of my children. I am afraid for myself and my family. We’ll have to move to another place, though everything was nice enough for us here.”
“What I fear is that Russians are the only ones who can’t handle the idea we won the money. They still can’t calm down… For now they are just trying to wring some money out of us, but it is beginning to look more like explicit threats,” Yuliya said, adding that she did not expect any trouble from non-Russians.
The prize is guaranteed to pay at least $20 million.
