Miami police say a neighborhood convenience store manager turned the Florida Lottery into his own personal side hustle, walking off with hundreds of thousands of dollars in scratch-off ticket books before the scheme unraveled. The manager, 34-year-old Rakesh Tanguturi, was arrested Monday after his boss flagged suspicious lottery activity and missing books, and he is now facing felony theft and fraud charges.
According to NBC 6 South Florida, Tanguturi was running Bargain Stop 2 at 249 Northwest 62nd Street when the store owner noticed unusual bank withdrawals tied to lottery transactions and realized multiple scratch-off books had vanished. Tanguturi was booked on counts of organized fraud involving more than $50,000 and grand theft.
How Investigators Say the Scheme Worked
The Florida Lottery’s winner guide notes that prizes of $599 or less can be paid out right at an authorized retailer, while prizes of $600 or more usually have to be claimed at a Lottery District Office, which creates an official paper trail for the bigger wins. That structure, along with the Lottery’s reporting system, means a cluster of redemptions at one store can light up the system for a closer look, according to the Florida Lottery.
NBC 6 reports that the total value of the missing ticket books was more than $300,000. Investigators say some of the damage was masked when winning tickets were cashed in, and the confirmed theft amount currently stands at about $60,546.95. A Florida Lottery investigator reportedly traced stolen books to bulk redemptions at a single retailer, and NBC 6 adds that the store owner received a text-message confession from Tanguturi before confronting him in person…