How Massachusetts family scammed the lottery for $20 million by cashing more than 14,000 winning tickets before their luck ran out
- Ali Jaafar, 63, and Yousef Jaafar, 29, were found guilty by a federal jury on Friday on several tax evasion and money laundering charges
- The Jaafars cashed in 14,000 winning lottery tickets over a roughly 10-year period, laundered more than $20 million in proceeds before lying on tax returns
- They targeted winners whose jackpots would incur back taxes and offered to claim their prize instead for a cut smaller than what was owed to the IRS
A Massachusetts dad and his two sons embarked on an elaborate scam which saw them claim 14,000 winning lottery tickets worth $20 million in prizes.
Ali Jaafar, 63, and his son Yousef, 29, were sentenced to five years and 50 months behind bars respectively over the scam, which cost the State of Massachusetts $6 million in lost taxes – and enriched the pair to the tune of $1.2 million.
The pair and another son – Mohamed Jaafar – enlisted convenience store owners to help them identify lottery winners, whose prize they’d then offer to claim in return for a 10 percent cut of winnings.
Winners’ payouts face deductions for any outstanding taxes or child support payments they owe. Giving the Jaafars their tickets allowed winners to dodge these liabilities for an amount less than they’d have lost to the IRS.
The elaborate con – which saw the Jaafars branded ‘the luckiest family in Massachusetts’ – has been dubbed the biggest fraud ever carried out against the state of Massachusetts.
Mohamed Jaafar once interned for Democrat Senator John Kerry and admitted his role in the scheme in November 2022.
He was born in Lebanon in 1958 and eventually moved to Sierra Leone after facing war and violence on the streets growing up.
There, he met wife Souraya and had three children but they were forced to uproot again after Liberian rebels invaded Sierra Leone.
The couple obtained US visas through Ali’s parents, who had moved to America years earlier.
How about the Feds cancel their visas or Green Cards and kick their butts out of the country? They did it to Lucky Luciano.
On the North River 