{"id":247660,"date":"2022-12-12T17:08:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T23:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=247660"},"modified":"2022-12-12T17:41:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T23:41:58","slug":"massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts Lottery \u2018Ten-Percenters\u2019 Guilty of Tax Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

A father and son who \u201cwon\u201d the Massachusetts Lottery more than 14,000 times<\/a> have been convicted of tax fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n

\"Ali
Ali Jaafar, right, and Yousef Jaafar, left, during one of their regular trips to collect lottery winnings. They face up to five years in prison. (Image: Mass Lottery\/Casino.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ali Jaafar, 63, and Yousef Jaafar, 29, both of Watertown, Mass., were among the most prolific lottery winners in the state\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Winning 14,000 times is at least theoretically possible. But Massachusetts State Lottery boss Michael R. Sweeney framed it more succinctly when he said of the chances, \u201cThe reality is, it\u2019s zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors agreed. They said the Jaafars were operating an industrial-scale ticket-cashing scheme that grossed $21 million in eight years.<\/p>\n

The Ten-Percenters <\/strong><\/h2>\n

In some states, lottery winners who owe federal tax or child support will see these liabilities deducted from wins over a certain threshold. In Massachusetts that threshold is $600.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why individuals who find themselves in this predicament sometimes sell their tickets to an underground ticket-cashing business at a discount. Typically, the casher takes 10%; hence the terms \u201cdiscounting\u201d or \u201c10-percenting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendants conspired with others to purchase winning lottery tickets at a cash discount from gamblers all over Massachusetts, often using convenience store owners to facilitate the transactions,\u201d read a statement from the Justice Department.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the Massachusetts Lottery Commission (MGC) noticed Ali Jaafar was the top individual lottery ticket casher that year. They also noticed that his two sons, Yousef and Mohammed, were third and fourth respectively.<\/p>\n

Mohammed Jaafar was convicted<\/a> of tax fraud and money laundering last month.<\/p>\n

In total, the three family members received more than $1,200,000 in tax refunds by claiming other peoples\u2019 lottery tickets as their own and then offsetting those winnings with fake gambling losses on their tax returns,\u201d <\/strong>the Justice Department said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The MGC temporarily banned the Jaafars from playing the lottery in 2019. The family responded by suing the commission, unsuccessfully, for an injunction to let them continue cashing out their endless supply of winning tickets.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The Jaafars were indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2021<\/p>\n

Cheating the System<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sentencing for Mohamed Jaafar is scheduled for next March, Ali and Yousef in April. The charge of conspiracy to defraud the IRS comes with a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250K or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater, and restitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy defrauding the Massachusetts Lottery and the Internal Revenue Service, the Jaafars cheated the system and took millions of hard-earned taxpayers\u2019 dollars. This guilty verdict shows that elaborate money-laundering schemes and tax frauds will be rooted out and prosecuted,\u201d said US Attorney Rachael S. Rollins in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A father and son who \u201cwon\u201d the Massachusetts Lottery more than 14,000 times have been convicted of tax fraud and money laundering. Ali Jaafar, 63, and Yousef Jaafar, 29, both of Watertown, Mass., were among the most prolific lottery winners in the state\u2019s history. Winning 14,000 times is at least theoretically possible. But Massachusetts State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":247661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,13699],"tags":[84091,13701,27],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMassachusetts Lottery Prolific \u2018Ten-Percenters\u2019 Guilty of Tax Fraud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lottery ten-percenters Ali Jaafar and Yousef Jaafar convicted of tax fraud after winning the Massachusetts Lottery more than 14,000 times.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Massachusetts Lottery Prolific \u2018Ten-Percenters\u2019 Guilty of Tax Fraud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lottery ten-percenters Ali Jaafar and Yousef Jaafar convicted of tax fraud after winning the Massachusetts Lottery more than 14,000 times.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-12T23:08:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-12T23:41:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lottery-winners.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1478\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"812\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/\",\"name\":\"Massachusetts Lottery Prolific \u2018Ten-Percenters\u2019 Guilty of Tax Fraud\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lottery-winners.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-12T23:08:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-12T23:41:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Lottery ten-percenters Ali Jaafar and Yousef Jaafar convicted of tax fraud after winning the Massachusetts Lottery more than 14,000 times.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lottery-winners.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lottery-winners.jpg\",\"width\":1478,\"height\":812,\"caption\":\"Yousef Jaafar, left, and his father, Ali, were sentenced to prison at a federal court Boston Monday and ordered to repay all profits from their discounting scheme. (Image: Mass Lottery\/Casino.org)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lottery\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/lottery\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Massachusetts Lottery \u2018Ten-Percenters\u2019 Guilty of Tax Fraud\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Massachusetts Lottery Prolific \u2018Ten-Percenters\u2019 Guilty of Tax Fraud","description":"Lottery ten-percenters Ali Jaafar and Yousef Jaafar convicted of tax fraud after winning the Massachusetts Lottery more than 14,000 times.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Massachusetts Lottery Prolific \u2018Ten-Percenters\u2019 Guilty of Tax Fraud","og_description":"Lottery ten-percenters Ali Jaafar and Yousef Jaafar convicted of tax fraud after winning the Massachusetts Lottery more than 14,000 times.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2022-12-12T23:08:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-12-12T23:41:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1478,"height":812,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lottery-winners.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/","name":"Massachusetts Lottery Prolific \u2018Ten-Percenters\u2019 Guilty of Tax Fraud","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lottery-winners.jpg","datePublished":"2022-12-12T23:08:27+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-12T23:41:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Lottery ten-percenters Ali Jaafar and Yousef Jaafar convicted of tax fraud after winning the Massachusetts Lottery more than 14,000 times.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lottery-winners.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lottery-winners.jpg","width":1478,"height":812,"caption":"Yousef Jaafar, left, and his father, Ali, were sentenced to prison at a federal court Boston Monday and ordered to repay all profits from their discounting scheme. (Image: Mass Lottery\/Casino.org)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/massachusetts-lottery-ten-percenters-guilty-of-tax-fraud\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lottery","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/lottery\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Massachusetts Lottery \u2018Ten-Percenters\u2019 Guilty of Tax Fraud"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}