Five construction workers who claimed a colleague cheated them out of their share of a multimillion-dollar lottery jackpot have been awarded $4 million each by a New Jersey jury, their lawyer said.

A unanimous verdict was reached Wednesday morning by the jury, which heard the lawsuit in state Superior Court in Elizabeth. The panel rejected the claims of Americo Lopes, 52, who had claimed he won the 2009 jackpot on a personal ticket _ not with a ticket he bought as part a lottery pool with the co-workers.

Attorney Rubin Sinins represented the five men and says the $38.5 million jackpot was worth $24 million because Lopes chose the cash option. But he declined to discuss or provide more specific details on the amounts the plaintiffs would receive.

Earlier Wednesday, court spokeswoman Sandra Thaler-Gerber had said each plaintiff would get a pre-tax payment of $2 million. She did not return a message seeking information about the discrepancy between her statement and the lawyer's statement.

The Star-Ledger of Newark said Lopes left court with his wife shortly after the verdict was handed up. Speaking in Portuguese, Lopes said he had been robbed as he walked quickly out of the courtroom.

When the verdict was announced, the five plaintiffs embraced one another in the courtroom. They and Lopes had all worked together at an Elizabeth-based construction firm, where they began playing the lottery together in 2007.

“I have a lot to do,” plaintiff Carlos Fernandez said. “My granddaughter was born yesterday. I have to buy her a present she'll remember.” (AP)

A New Jersey man, sued for refusing to split a $77 million prize with members of his lottery pool, denied responsibility to inform them of his win.

In Union County Court Monday, Americo Lopes testified he was "just a co-worker" of the men with whom he worked with for more than 10 years at an Elizabeth, N.J., construction company, and that he "did not have to tell them" the lottery ticket bought with pooled money was a loser but one allegedly purchased with Lopes' own money won the jackpot.

The five plaintiffs are suing him for $4 million each.

The group paid for lottery tickets, purchased by Lopes, twice a week for the past five years, pooling $12 each time for twelve chances to win the Mega Millions lottery, the plaintiffs testified.

The money for the winning ticket of November 10, 2009 came from the pooled funds, they insisted in court.

"You, for one, did not believe you were friends with any of these individuals?" plaintiff attorney Rubin Sinins asked Lopes in regard to Lopes' withholding news of winning the jackpot.

Lopes said in court he was not, although he referred to them as "friends" in a pretrial deposition, the New York Post reported Tuesday. (AP)