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Federal Jury Convicts Father and Son In $20 Million Lottery Scam

Federal Jury Convicts Father and Son In $20 Million Lottery Scam

A Massachusetts federal jury has convicted a father and son duo on lottery scam charges.

Credit: Jodi Jacobson/Getty Images

According to an official release from the United States Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts, Ali Jaafar, 63, and Yousef Jaafar, 29, were each convicted of  one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count each of filing a false tax return.

The Watertown-based duo, along with another son, Mohamed Jaafar, conducted a “ten-percenting” scheme, which involved fraudulently cashing winning Massachusetts state lottery tickets on behalf of the actual gamblers to avoid taxes and receive tax refunds, rather than paying taxes on their lottery earnings.

The scam is known as "ten-percenting" because ticket purchasers typically keep between 10-20 percent of each ticket’s value.

For nearly a decade, between 2011 and 2020, the Jaafar family cashed upwards of 14,000 lottery tickets, claiming over $20 million in winnings. 

This made Ali the top individual lottery casher in the state, followed by Mohamed and Yousef in third and fourth place. It is unknown if the person who held the second-place spot was involved in the scheme in any way. 

Credit: Mint Images/Getty Images

Following the jury's decision, U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled Ali's sentencing for April 11, 2023 and Yousef's for April 13, 2023.

Mohamed previously pled guilty on November 4, 2022. He will be sentenced on March 8, 2023. 

What do you think about this massive lottery scam?

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Feature Image Credit: Dowell/Getty Images

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Rebekah Barton

Rebekah Barton

Rebekah's search engine optimization career began completely by accident as a college student. Over the course of her career so far, she has "grown up" with the SEO industry, from writing content while juggling classes to managing her own teams of writers and overseeing SEO strategy in subsequent roles. She is excited to bring her passion for high-quality content to CountingWorks, Inc.

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