SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Cheng “Charlie” Saephan wore a broad smile and a bright blue sash emblazoned with the words “Iu-Mien USA” as he hoisted an oversized check for $1.3 billion above his head.
The 46-year-old immigrant’s luck in winning an enormous Powerball jackpot in Oregon earlier this month — a lump sum payment of $422 million after taxes, which he and his wife will split with a friend — has changed his life. It also raised awareness about Iu Mien people, a southeast Asian ethnic group with origins in China, many of whose members fled from Laos to Thailand and then settled in the U.S. following the Vietnam War.
“I am born in Laos, but I am not Laotian,” Saephan told a news conference Monday at Oregon Lottery headquarters, where his identity as one of the jackpot’s winners was revealed. “I am Iu Mien.”
During the Vietnam War, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Iu Mien in neighboring Laos, many of them subsistence farmers, to engage in guerrilla warfare and to provide intelligence and surveillance to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail that the North Vietnamese used to send troops and weapons through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.
Israeli army says it kills over 130 militants in E. Rafah
The Rev. Al Sharpton calls for justice in eulogy for Ohio man who died last month in police custody
Dating coach dishes on his 'five
China's Xi arrives in Hungary for talks on expanding Chinese investments
Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 26
Yamamoto goes 8 innings and Muncy hits early slam as Dodgers beat Marlins 8
Dating coach dishes on his 'five
Kate Hudson hits the stage to debut songs from her new album Glorious at star
Nemo, among the favorites at Eurovision, is finding acceptance onstage and off