Unrelated clauses joined by て or the extra meaning of こともある

Question

会計検査院が調べると、この商品券を同じ人がたくさん買って、１回の買い物で１００万円以上使っていたことがありました。同じ会社の人たちが全部で１８００万円の商品券を買って、船を買うために使っていたこともありました。

When the audit office investigated (they found that) it's the same people that buy a lot of these coupons. There was an occasion where 1 million Yen was spent in one shopping trip. People from the same company bought a total of 18 million Yen's worth of coupons, and there was a time they were even used to buy a boat.

I'm a bit puzzled by こともありました at the end of this paragraph. At first I assumed that the company who bought 18 million Yen of coupons were the people who bought the boat, because the clause are joined with て. But the こともありました ending makes it sound to me like the boat buying was a separate thing.

Is there some aspect of こともありました that I'm missing or are these two events unrelated (even though they are joined with て)?

Answer 1

Judging from your translation attempt, it's not こともある but those Japanese commas that are actually throwing you off. Don't try to split the sentence into two there. Instead, parse them like so:

会計検査院が調べると、｛この商品券を同じ人がたくさん買って、１回の買い物で１００万円以上使っていたこと｝がありました。
..., there was { a case where one person bought a lot of coupons and spent over 1 million yen ('s worth of coupons) on a single purchase }.

｛同じ会社の人たちが全部で１８００万円の商品券を買って、船を買うために使っていたこと｝もありました。
There was even { a case where people in one company bought a total of 18 million yen's worth of coupons and used them (=1800万円の商品券) to buy a boat }.

See:

• という used right before comma: What does this mean, and how is it grammatically possible?
• Usage of commas in Japanese sentences
• Commas and relative clauses