$2B Powerball jackpot winner loses home in LA County wildfire

LOS ANGELES — The Altadena resident who won the largest ever Powerball jackpot and used some of his winnings to buy homes in exclusive Los Angeles County neighborhoods has lost at least one of those properties to the wildfires.

Edwin Castro won Powerball’s $2 billion jackpot in 2023, which equated to about $1 billion in winnings after taxes, and purchased homes in Malibu, another in Altadena and a third in the Hollywood hills, according to property records reviewed by The Times.

By the night of Jan. 8, two of the homes sat in evacuation zones and the third had burned to the ground, according to a review of satellite imagery from Airbus reviewed by The Times.

The home, a $3.85-million two-bedroom mansion with ocean views purchased in September 2023, was among thousands of structures razed by the Palisades fire, which started on Jan. 7.

The Sunset fire, which broke out near Runyon Canyon, placed Castro’s sprawling $25.5-million mansion in the Hollywood hills firmly within its evacuation zone.

And the Eaton fire approached his $3.98-milion home in Altadena, but spared it along with the Altadena gas station where he bought the winning ticket, according to visual analysis by the Times.

But the Malibu home, set along Pacific Coast Highway near Big Rock, was destroyed along with all of its immediate neighbors.

Castro purchased the home using an LLC whose listed business managers in public records were the same two men as those listed for LLCs used to buy the other two properties.

The lottery winner, who has stayed out of the public eye since claiming his prize, could not be reached for comment Monday.

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