In 2005, a Chinese lottery seller named Zhao Liqun spotted something no one else did: a five-minute glitch in the system that let him buy winning tickets after the numbers were announced. With three stalls under his control, he used the loophole not once, but three times, walking away with nearly $3.8 million. To cover his tracks, Zhao sent friends and neighbors to cash in the fraudulent tickets. But by the end of 2006, the scheme unraveled. In 2007, he was arrested, sentenced to life in prison, and stripped of all his assets... a punishment some say is harsher than other lottery fraud cases. His story remains one of China’s most audacious frauds... and a reminder of how a single flaw can upend an entire system. #TrueCrimeChina #LotteryScandal #SystemLoophole Follow Project Nightfall for more fascinating stories from around the world

In 2005, a Chinese lottery seller named Zhao Liqun spotted something no one else did: a five-minute glitch in the system that let him buy winning tickets after the numbers were announced. With three stalls under his control, he used the loophole not once, but three times, walking away with nearly $3.8 million. To cover his tracks, Zhao sent friends and neighbors to cash in the fraudulent tickets. But by the end of 2006, the scheme unraveled. In 2007, he was arrested, sentenced to life in prison, and stripped of all his assets... a punishment some say is harsher than other lottery fraud cases. His story remains one of China’s most audacious frauds... and a reminder of how a single flaw can upend an entire system. #TrueCrimeChina #LotteryScandal #SystemLoophole Follow Project Nightfall for more fascinating stories from around the world