John Cheeks, a Washington DC man who thought has won $340 million has sued Powerball and the DC lottery for emotional distress infliction, fraud, and breach of contract.

In January 2023, Mr Cheeks said he was over the moon when he saw that his lottery ticket numbers matched the Powerball’s winning numbers only for them to deny his claim.

“One of the claims agents told me my ticket was no good, just to throw it in the trash can,” he told BBC.

He however held on to his ticket and found a lawyer and is now suing the lottery company for the damages caused.

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“This lawsuit raises critical questions about the integrity and accountability of the lottery operations and the safeguards against the type of errors that Powerball and the DCLottery contend occurred in this case.” Mr Cheek’s lawyer told BBC.

He went on to further state that if winning numbers matched Mr Cheek’s ticket numbers he is entitled to the entire jackpot and if not to be compensated.

Court documents show that Powerball and a lottery contractor stated that the confusion arose due to a technical error in their website as they were running tests around the time the incident happened.

According to the court documents. On that day, 6 January 2023, a set of test Powerball numbers, which matched Mr Cheeks’ numbers was posted on the website accidentally.

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Those numbers remained online for three days.

Mr Cheeks is hopeful that justice will prevail admitting that the lottery winnings would have changed his life.

If he wins, he plans to open a trust bank meant to assist aspiring homeowners.

The case hearing is scheduled again for 23 February.