Father and Two Sons Indicted After Participating in Lottery Ticket Scam for More Than Ten Years

A Massachusetts father and his two sons are facing prison time for participating in an alleged lottery scheme.

Ali Jaafar, 62, and his two sons, Yousef Jaafar, 28, and Mohamed Jaafar, 30, have been indicted on money laundering and tax fraud after allegedly cashing in winning lottery tickets to help others not have to pay taxes on the prize money. The tactic is commonly known as “ten-percenting.” The men submitted more than 13,000 lottery tickets – mostly scratch-offs – pulling in a whopping $21 million over the past ten years, WBUR reports.

Court documents show the men allegedly conspired with lottery agents and convenience store employees at different locations to “purchase winning lottery tickets from the ticket holders for cash at a discounted price.” The suspects then redeemed the winning tickets and signed lottery paperwork claiming they won the money from the lottery tickets.

To keep their connections tight and mouths closed, the men would break off some money to the store workers and the lottery ticket officials. To ensure they wouldn’t have to pay the taxes on the money they illegally won, the suspects claimed huge gambling losses offset their winnings, WBUR reports.

It all went downhill after the Jaafars starting gaining a little bit too much media attention. On top of that, between 2011 and 2019, Ali Jaafar had paid less than $24,500 in federal taxes on his claimed winnings, boosting suspicion amongst authorities.

The U.S. District Court in Boston indicted the men on one count of defrauding the Internal Revenue Service, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and multiple counts of filing false tax returns.