Troy-based business owner ordered to prison, must pay hefty restitution for scheme that fueled gambling habit – The Oakland Press

A Troy-based commercial real estate broker and investor has been ordered to spend 53 months in prison and pay tens of millions of dollars in restitution for devising and carrying out a scheme to defraud investors in order to fuel his gambling habit with the Michigan Lottery.

Viktor Gjonaj, 44, was sentenced in federal court in Detroit on Sept. 29 after pleading guilty in March to one count of wire fraud and entering into a plea agreement.

According to court records, Gjonaj believed he had a guaranteed way to win huge jackpots in the Michigan Lottery Daily 3 and Daily 4 games. To do so would take a substantial increase in the frequency that he played and the amount spent. But his losses began to add up in 2017 to a point where he couldn’t afford to lose any more money. That’s when he concocted a plan to trick people into giving him money by falsely promising he’d use it to invest in lucrative real estate deals.

Court records also show that to make…

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