News writer; Opinion columnist
The tricky thing about lottery fortunes is that they're almost impossible to win, but shockingly easy to lose. Even the biggest eight-figure lottery jackpots are vulnerable to mismanagement, misspending, and poor decision-making, as instant millionaires struggle to prevent their big wins from turning into massive debts.
No matter how many times we offer advice on the best way to handle a lottery fortune, some winners seem determined to ignore every bit of help and guidance and spend themselves into oblivion.
These are true stories of lottery winners who turned their massive fortunes into inescapable debts and destroyed their lives in the process.
The giver
As a child, Sharon Tirabasi had a tough life. Her family situation was chaotic, and she grew up in various shelters and foster homes. As an adult, she struggled financially, living in a small apartment with her three children and unable to afford a car that could get her to work.
However, Tirabasi thought she would finally turn her life around in 2004 when she purchased a Lotto Super 7 ticket and won a $10 million jackpot.
She didn't waste any time living out her lottery fantasies, taking her family on luxurious vacations, treating herself to high-dollar spending sprees, and purchasing a fleet of new cars, including a yellow Hummer, a Mustang, a Dodge Charger, and a custom-built Cadillac Escalade with a personalized license plate that read “BABIPHAT.”
The only thing she didn't spend her money on was hiring an accountant or financial advisor to help keep track of her wealth.
In addition to her personal spending, Tirabasi was also incredibly generous with her friends and family. She would buy homes and rent them to her friends at rock-bottom rates. She gave her parents $1 million in cash and her siblings another $1.75 million to share between them.
Tirabasi admitted that she rarely checked her bank account, saying that it had so many zeroes, she thought she could never lose it all. Of course, those are famous last words for many lottery winners.
After nine years of lavish spending, she realized that her once massive fortune had depleted to just under $750,000, and she was on the verge of losing everything. Tirabasi understood that she had to change her ways or lose what little she had left.
She found part-time work, sold her mansion, and rented a smaller house for her family to stay in. She also put the remainder of her fortune into a trust for her children, so that they could collect it when they turned twenty-six years old.
Tirabasi admitted to reporters, "It was time for me to stop having fun and just go back to life."
Surprisingly, Tirabasi said she was actually happier when she had less money to spend.
“I lived like this my whole life; I was never rich. We grew up like this, so we're used to it.” She also mentioned that the money had caused her to lose close friends out of jealousy. “Friends that she hadn't talked to in a long time came calling. Money doesn't buy you happiness."
Party till you drop
Gerald Muswagon's lottery story paralleled Tirabasi's in some interesting ways but differed from hers with one tragic choice. The Manitoba resident also won $10 million after purchasing a Lotto Super 7 ticket, and he enjoyed some of the same reckless spending.
Muswagon was a 42-year-old blue-collar worker from a small town in Canada, and when he won a fortune in 1988, the only thing he could think to do with his jackpot was to spend it.
Friends reported that he was constantly splashing out money on big purchases, quickly buying a new home, a fleet of luxury cars and giving generous gifts to his friends. A family member claimed that Muswagon once purchased eight big-screen TVs for his friends in a single day and transformed his house into a non-stop party pad. It was also rumored that he was spending heavily on alcohol and drugs.
He attempted to generate more income by starting a logging business a few years after winning, but it was mismanaged and ultimately went bankrupt due to a lack of customers.
As his fortune dwindled, Muswagon spiraled out of control. In 2000, he was arrested after leading police on a high-speed chase in his Chevrolet Silverado, which reached speeds of over 100 miles per hour. He pleaded guilty to reckless driving, and a judge sentenced him to three months in jail. Sadly, his wife passed away shortly after his first arrest, and her loss pushed him into making more bad choices.
Muswagon was arrested again for sexual battery and sentenced to an additional three months in prison.
By now, most of his money was gone, and he was struggling to support his new partner and six children. He found work on a farm, where he performed heavy labor. Friends say he sank into a heavy depression, and in 2005, he took his own life in the garage of his family home.
Mike Muswagon, Gerald's cousin, says his biggest weakness was not surrounding himself with people who could help him manage his money effectively. Mike stated:
He didn't have the right people around him at the time, people who could have guided him. A lot of people asked a lot of him.
He added:
I really wanted him to be set up for life, so he never had to work another day. He should have been able to do that. But he made some very bad decisions.
Secrets and lies
From the outside, Ibi and Joseph Ronacaioli appeared to be the perfect couple. He was a gynecologist with a thriving practice in Ontario, Canada, and she was a dedicated housewife. They lived in an opulent mansion that featured an indoor pool and sauna.
However, the truth was that the Ronacaioli's marriage had been falling apart for years, and the two rarely spent time together, with each one residing in their own wing of their home. Joseph believed that his wife was a gambling, alcohol, and drug addict and suspected her of stealing from him to fuel her habits.
Their conflict came to a head when Ibi achieved something that most couples would celebrate: a massive lottery win. She and a friend won a $7.4 million jackpot from a Canadian Lottery draw game and split the prize in half. However, she never told her husband Joseph and kept her windfall a secret.
Instead of sharing the money with her husband, Ibi gave it away. First, she sent $590,000 to the son she shared with Joseph and the same amount to another son she had with a different man.
However, according to Joseph, the final straw came when she gave $1.4 million to yet another son that she had with a third man, whom her children knew nothing about.
Ibi's secretive generosity appears to have been the final straw for Joseph, and prosecutors allege that when he found out she gave a fortune to a son he never even knew about, he grew enraged and plotted to murder his wife. According to court records, in 2003, Joseph injected Ibi with an overdose of painkillers that stopped her heart.
Afterwards, instead of calling for an ambulance, he immediately called his bookkeeper and real estate agent to help find money that he believed Ibi had stolen from him. When Ibi's body was finally discovered, her husband claimed that she had died of natural causes, but an autopsy revealed the presence of several potent sedatives, and Joseph was arrested and charged with his wife's death.
At his 2008 trial, he argued that he was only trying to render her unconscious so he could draw her blood and check her health; however, prosecutors showed that even after he admitted to finding his wife's body, he never called for medical assistance.
The presiding judge was unpersuaded by Joseph's story, found him guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced him to seven years in prison.
Rhoda and Alex Toth
In 1990, Florida residents Rhoda and Alex Toth were down to their last dollar. To be accurate, they were down to their last $24, which was all they had left in their bank account. The couple struggled financially because Rhoda stayed home to raise their children, and Alex was unable to find work due to a disability.
Then a miracle happened, or at least, that's what it should have been.
The Toths won a $13 million jackpot in the Florida Lottery and opted to receive their payout in annual installments of $666,666 for twenty years. Their big win should have been enough to solve their money troubles forever, but instead, it ultimately led to even bigger problems.
"It is a lot of money," Alex said at the time. "It creates a lot of pressure on you."
Like so many other winners in this article, as soon as they received their money, they started spending it. Alex stocked up on American muscle cars, including Corvettes and Camaros. They also purchased 10 acres of land where they planned to build their dream home, enjoyed private jet travel, and stayed in a $1,000-a-night Las Vegas penthouse for three straight months.
However, what really destroyed their fortune was Alex's gambling addiction, and he eventually blew through their entire fortune, forcing the family to declare bankruptcy in 2001 and 2002.
Sadly, losing all of their money wasn't even their biggest problem. The Toths never hired anyone to help manage their fortune, which meant they weren't paying the taxes they owed on their annual lottery checks. In 2006, the federal government charged them with tax fraud for failing to pay $2.6 million in back taxes.
At this point, the Toths were destitute and couldn't even pay a fraction of what they owed. Their fortune was gone, and they lived in a squalid home, taking electricity from an extension cord hooked up to their car battery.
Alex and Rhoda divorced after Alex went to a medical center to receive treatment for his mental problems. He died in 2008 of a heart attack at age 60. At the time of his death, they were living off of just $1,500 a month that they received from their social security benefits.
While still grieving the loss of her ex-husband, Rhoda went to trial for tax fraud, was found guilty, and sentenced to two years in prison.
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