An Orange County man says he won the Powerball jackpot but hasn’t received the money weeks later.

An Orange County man claims to be the winner of a $44 million Powerball jackpot, but weeks after the drawing he says he still hasn’t received a dime.

Jerry often likes to play the lottery.

“Fantasy 5, Powerball… Super Lotto, Mega… I play all the games,” he said.

On the eve of the Aug. 19 Powerball drawing, he stopped by his Ralphs neighborhood to buy lottery tickets using some of his favorite numbers. All five numbers, including number 10, which he chose as the Powerball, came up.

“In a way it was exciting because you don’t expect to ever get all six numbers. Six Powerball numbers are… the probability that you will die sooner… You will go out and be struck by lightning sooner.” You’re going to win this,” he said.

But more than nine weeks later, Jerry is still waiting for payment.

“This process is really terrible for the winner of a big… any big lottery win,” he said. “They won’t tell you until that date you will receive the funds. They won’t tell you that. They leave it open so you sit and wait every day… (hoping you’re going to get those funds.)”

Carolyn Becker of the California Lottery said the fastest a winner can get is four weeks, but that doesn’t happen very often.

The California Lottery would not comment on Jerry’s statement, but said that anyone claiming a winning ticket must go through a lengthy verification process. This includes an investigation by their law enforcement agencies and cross-checking that the purported winner does not owe the government any money in the form of taxes or child support.

Lottery officials say the goal is for each case to be resolved in 6 to 8 weeks, but it could take longer.

“Believe it or not, the California Lottery processes over 10,000 claims per month, so we want to meet the expectations of our winners,” Becker added.

Jerry remains hopeful that his winnings from this $44 million jackpot will be deposited into this bank account sooner rather than later and he can begin to enjoy the amount of money that will change his life.