Federal prosecutors charged a Massachusetts man and his two sons with more than a dozen counts of fraud, money laundering and tax evasion for taking part in a ticket-cashing scheme spanning eight years, The New York Times (NYT) reported Monday.
The indictment state Ali Jaafar and his sons, Mohamaed and Yousef, took prizes on behalf of the real winners from 2011 to 2019, cashing in more than 13,000 winning lottery tickets worth about $21 million, the NYT reported. Prosecutors told the outlet the tickets were the scratch-off kind that convenience stores usually sell.
No statistical model could explain it, and when a Massachusetts man and his two sons cashed in more than 13,000 winning lottery tickets worth nearly $21 million over eight years, federal prosecutors and lottery officials said it was anything but luck. https://t.co/x5pPWUsgcV
— Neil Vigdor (@gettinviggy) August 23, 2021
On their tax returns, the Jaafars wrongly reported large gambling losses that allowed them to reduce taxes paid on winnings, prosecutors told the NYT.
“A statistician will say that there’s some astronomical odd,” Michael R. Sweeney, the executive director of the Massachusetts State Lottery, told the NYT. “But the reality is, it’s zero … This is not the result of somebody who’s lucky or somebody who is, quote-unquote, playing a lot.”
In 2019, the Jaafars unsuccessfully challenged the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission’s decision to temporarily suspend the three men from cashing lottery tickets, the NYT reported. (RELATED: Man In Massachusetts Wins $15 Million Playing The Lottery After Previously Winning $1 Million)
Ali and Mohamad were arrested and released Monday, later pleading not guilty during a videoconference in Boston’s federal court, according to the NYT. Yousef is potentially in custody, the outlet noted.