Did A 27-Year-Old Hedge Fund Manager Win Powerball Jackpot? People Furious Over Viral Facebook Hoax

With a Powerball jackpot of $1.5 billion, people across America flocked to stores to purchase a ticket in hopes of becoming an instant millionaire. However, what would happen if a person who was already a millionaire won the big prize? Apparently, people would be pretty angry. A viral Facebook post suggests that a 27-year-old hedge fund manager from Chino Hills, California, won the big prize. The post sent people into rants about the “fairness” of allowing millionaires to play the Powerball, as they have the means to buy more tickets and don’t need the money. Fortunately for those angered by the prospect of a millionaire winning the Powerball, the Facebook post was hoax created by a satire news website.

The United Media Publishing sent Facebook Powerball players into a frenzy when it posted that a 27-year-old hedge fund manager, Jared Price, had won the record-breaking Powerpall jackpot of $1.5 billion. The post claimed that the young man was already a millionaire and had used his funds to purchase 15,000 Powerball tickets for $30,000. The faux report also suggested that this was his first time playing Powerball and that he already had “more than anyone would ever need,” so he is just taking the 30-year installments and living life as normal, possibly shelling out some of it for another new yacht or the new Wu Tang album.

The viral post also suggested that hedge fund manager Jared Price was on the Forbes list of one of the richest “Under 30” as he worked as head of Spiegel International.

“Price, who according to Forbes is one of the richest ‘Under 30’ making millions of dollars as the head of Spiegel International, bought 15,000 Powerball tickets for $30,000 before Wednesday’s drawing.”

Please tell me it wasn’t really a hedge fund manager who won one of the powerball tickets. #Powerball

— Aurea Astro (@ItsReallyMyName) January 14, 2016

the guy that won the powerball is a hedge fund manager. im pissed

— Dan (@dannadenson) January 14, 2016

However, there is only one problem with everyone’s outrage regarding the idea of a millionaire hedge fund manager winning the Powerball, Jared Price was made up by United Media Publishing, as it is an undisclosed satire website. As Snopes previously reported, United Media Publishing is a satire website that does not feature a satire disclosure on its website. The articles posted on the website are all satire, written in similar fashion to the Onion. Therefore, anything read on the website should be deemed as written for humor and not taken as fact.

The #Powerball hedge fund story appears to be a hoax geared toward infuriating people. Site also says Charles Manson is dead (still alive).

— Kyle Buis (@kylebuis) January 14, 2016

So who actually won the $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot? The California Lottery has announced that they had one jackpot winner who made a purchase at a Chino Hills 7-11. Florida and Tennessee also claim to have one winner each. Therefore, it seems that the record-breaking jackpot will be split three ways. None of the winners have come forward publicly, so we will just have to wait it out to see if any of the winners are well-to-do on their own.

Though the story of the millionaire winning the Powerball was a viral hoax, it does bring up some interesting commentary about who should be allowed to play the Powerball. Do you think millionaires should be exempt from playing the Powerball due to the “unfair advantage” of being able to purchase more tickets? Or would be be unfair to exclude anyone, seeing as how even most millionaires would have earned more than their net worth with one winning ticket? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]