The winner of the $315million Powerball has been revealed as a 55-year-old immigrant who lives in New Jersey.
Tayeb Souami, 55, was named on Friday as the winner of the May 19 draw. He has decided to take a cash payout instead of receiving regular installments and will be given $182million before taxes.
Speaking at a press conference in New Jersey, where he lives, he said: ‘My day has come.’
Souami moved to the US in 1996 from Africa. He declined to tell journalists which country he is originally from.
In May, he bought his winning ticket at the last minute while returning something to a Shoprite near his home in Little Ferry, New Jersey.
Tayeb Souami, 55, was named on Friday as the winner of the $315.3million Powerball on May 19
He was working as an accountant for a food importing company and had just remortgaged his home to allow him to send his daughter to college.
Souami took the ticket home and forgot about it until Sunday when he was running errands and decided to check on his numbers.
He said the store clerk ‘jumped up and down’ when he realized he had the winning numbers.
‘The clerk kept saying, “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” and my heart went just like a Tom and Jerry cartoon when the heart went boom boom … and I found out after that I was the one.’
Souami became emotional on Friday as he said: ‘My day has come in’. He also revealed that he had recently quit his job as an accountant at a food importing company
Souami brought with him one of his four children, his 20-year-old son Inel who jokingly revealed that he recently told his father to stop ‘wasting’ his money on lottery tickets
Afterwards, he said he could barely drive home because he was so shaken up and it took him two hours to fill out lottery forms because his hands were shaking.
‘This is big. I am very emotional right now. I like the numbers and I always play with those numbers,’ he said.
Souami has since left his job at the food importing company.
He has not yet decided how to spend all of the money but his priority, he said, will be looking after his family.
The father-of-four brought his son Inel, 20, with him to the press conference on Friday and playfully revealed how he’d told him to stop ‘wasting his money’ on lotto tickets.
‘Father knows best,’ Inel said, joking about his previous warnings.
Souami’s check was presented on Friday as he revealed himself to the world