Manuel Franco has been identified as the 24-year-old Wisconsin man who won the recent $768.4 Million Powerball. Under Wisconsin state law, lottery winners cannot remain anonymous.
Franco, who took almost a month to claim his winnings after winning on March 27, said he put his ticket in a safe after realizing he had won so he could set up a financial team.
While the 24-year-old Wisconsinite — who said he spent just $10 on individual Powerball tickets — would not reveal what line of work he was in prior to winning the lottery, he did say that he quit his job just two days after winning the $768.4 Million Powerball.
Franco says he intends to opt for the lump-sum payment of approximately $477 million dollars. After taxes, lottery officials say Franco stands to make over $326 million.
Franco bought his ticket at a Speedway gas station in New Berlin, Wisconsin. The Speedway gas station will receive $100,000 for selling the winning ticket.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Franco said that the moment he found out he won the $768 million dollar lottery “felt like a dream.”
“It feels like a dream. It was amazing, my heart started racing, blood pumping. I screamed for about 5 or 10 minutes,” Franco told reporters.
Franco’s $768 million win is the third-largest jackpot win in history, behind only the $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot in January 2016 and the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot won in South Carolina in October 2018
He said he plans to use some of his extraordinary winnings to give back as he plans to donate money to charity.
That is all the information that is available at this time. This article will be updated with new and relevant information should it become available at any time. If there is anything that we missed, please feel free to send an email to editor@teamcoed.com and we will respond as soon as possible.