They thought they could get away with it! Father and son's shocking $30 million lotto scam lands them in jail
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It’s a dream so many of us want to achieve – to win the lottery and live out our days with financial peace and security.
But for a father and son duo, that dream has ended in a jail cell after they were found guilty of an elaborate lotto scam, claiming more than $30 million.
This brazen crime of Ali Jaafar, 63, and his son Yousef, 29, stretched out for nearly a decade, with their cunning game working like clockwork for years – until, finally, their luck ran out.
The criminal duo has now been sentenced to a collective near-decade in prison over the scam that saw them unlawfully cash in more than 14,000 lottery tickets, totalling some US $20 million (AU $30.6 million).
They were found guilty in December and sentenced earlier this week in a US courtroom.
The father and son were also found to have lied on their tax returns to dodge more than US $6 million (AU $9.2 million) in taxes, as well as ordered to pay out in restitution and forfeiture.
Ali Jaafar was sentenced to five years in prison over the scam, while his son Yousef was sentenced to four years and two months, said the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts in a news release.
But what exactly happened?
According to an indictment, from at least 2011 to June 2020, Ali and Yousef Jaafar conspired with a group of other conmen to launder funds from the Massachusetts state lottery.
They recruited a ‘wide network of co-conspirators’; some are known to the police, while others have yet to be identified.
According to reports, the men would buy the winning lottery tickets from people across the state who wanted to sell their tickets for a cash discount instead of claiming the prize.
This meant the real winners avoided identification by the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, which is required to ‘withhold outstanding taxes, back taxes and child support payments’ before paying the prize.
After buying the discounted tickets from the winners, the father and son would claim the prize money to the commission as their own, with the help of convenience store owners who would ‘facilitate the transactions’.
The Jaafars went even further, fraudulently claiming their winnings on tax returns and claiming fake gambling losses to dodge federal taxes.
‘Instead of using business savvy and skill to build a legitimate multi-generational family business, the Jaafars carried out a complex decade-long tax and lottery scam, building a vast network of co-conspirators to further their illegal activities,’ Joleen Simpson, a special agent in charge of criminal investigations in Boston, said in a report.
Mohamed Jaafar, another of Ali’s sons who was also involved in the plot, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to defraud the IRS and will be sentenced in July.
Ali and Yousef intend to appeal the convictions, a legal representative said.
‘This case is, at its core, an elaborate tax fraud. Over the course of a decade, this father-and-son team defrauded the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission and the IRS (the Internal Revenue Service, the equivalent of the Australian Taxation Office) to pocket millions of hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars,’ said acting US Attorney Joshua S Levy.
‘These defendants worked together to recruit a wide network of co-conspirators and spread their lottery scam across Massachusetts, avoiding detection by repeatedly lying to government officials,’ he continued.
The Jaafars represented three of the top four individual lottery ticket cashers in Massachusetts in 2019, according to the US Attorney’s office.
Dozens of lottery retailers participated in the scheme, and their lottery agent licences have since been revoked.
Members, while this took place in the US, this story is a reminder that not only can scams cause financial devastation but can land you behind bars too. And it’s not only lotteries to be aware of; documents, phone calls, emails, and online advertisements are all parts of scams that aim to take your money.
If you ever believe you are the victim of a scam, make sure you report it to the authorities immediately. After all, there's no such thing as an easy buck!
Have you ever been defrauded by a scam? Share your experiences with us in the comments below.
But for a father and son duo, that dream has ended in a jail cell after they were found guilty of an elaborate lotto scam, claiming more than $30 million.
This brazen crime of Ali Jaafar, 63, and his son Yousef, 29, stretched out for nearly a decade, with their cunning game working like clockwork for years – until, finally, their luck ran out.
The criminal duo has now been sentenced to a collective near-decade in prison over the scam that saw them unlawfully cash in more than 14,000 lottery tickets, totalling some US $20 million (AU $30.6 million).
They were found guilty in December and sentenced earlier this week in a US courtroom.
A father and son duo claimed more than $30 million in lotto prizes. Credit: Tara Winstead/Pexels
The father and son were also found to have lied on their tax returns to dodge more than US $6 million (AU $9.2 million) in taxes, as well as ordered to pay out in restitution and forfeiture.
Ali Jaafar was sentenced to five years in prison over the scam, while his son Yousef was sentenced to four years and two months, said the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts in a news release.
But what exactly happened?
According to an indictment, from at least 2011 to June 2020, Ali and Yousef Jaafar conspired with a group of other conmen to launder funds from the Massachusetts state lottery.
They recruited a ‘wide network of co-conspirators’; some are known to the police, while others have yet to be identified.
According to reports, the men would buy the winning lottery tickets from people across the state who wanted to sell their tickets for a cash discount instead of claiming the prize.
The pair essentially committed tax fraud. Credit: Leeloo The first/Pexels
This meant the real winners avoided identification by the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, which is required to ‘withhold outstanding taxes, back taxes and child support payments’ before paying the prize.
After buying the discounted tickets from the winners, the father and son would claim the prize money to the commission as their own, with the help of convenience store owners who would ‘facilitate the transactions’.
The Jaafars went even further, fraudulently claiming their winnings on tax returns and claiming fake gambling losses to dodge federal taxes.
‘Instead of using business savvy and skill to build a legitimate multi-generational family business, the Jaafars carried out a complex decade-long tax and lottery scam, building a vast network of co-conspirators to further their illegal activities,’ Joleen Simpson, a special agent in charge of criminal investigations in Boston, said in a report.
Mohamed Jaafar, another of Ali’s sons who was also involved in the plot, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to defraud the IRS and will be sentenced in July.
Ali and Yousef intend to appeal the convictions, a legal representative said.
‘This case is, at its core, an elaborate tax fraud. Over the course of a decade, this father-and-son team defrauded the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission and the IRS (the Internal Revenue Service, the equivalent of the Australian Taxation Office) to pocket millions of hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars,’ said acting US Attorney Joshua S Levy.
‘These defendants worked together to recruit a wide network of co-conspirators and spread their lottery scam across Massachusetts, avoiding detection by repeatedly lying to government officials,’ he continued.
The Jaafars represented three of the top four individual lottery ticket cashers in Massachusetts in 2019, according to the US Attorney’s office.
Dozens of lottery retailers participated in the scheme, and their lottery agent licences have since been revoked.
Members, while this took place in the US, this story is a reminder that not only can scams cause financial devastation but can land you behind bars too. And it’s not only lotteries to be aware of; documents, phone calls, emails, and online advertisements are all parts of scams that aim to take your money.
If you ever believe you are the victim of a scam, make sure you report it to the authorities immediately. After all, there's no such thing as an easy buck!
