Who Is Ali Jaafar? MA Man Accused Of Lottery Scam With Sons

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Ali Jaafar
Ali Jaafar

Ali Jaafar is a 62 year old man from Watertown, Massachusetts. He and his sons, Yousef Jaafar (28) and Mohamed Jaafar (30) have been charged with running a lottery scam and tax fraud by the Department of Justice.

Jaafar and Sons Charged By DOJ. “Ali Jaafar, 62, and Yousef Jaafar, 28, both of Watertown, and Mohamed Jaafar, 30, of Watertown and Waltham, and were each indicted on one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple counts of filing false tax returns.” [DOJ]

Two Pleaded Not Guilty. “Ali Jaafar and Mohamed Jaafar pleaded not guilty on Monday afternoon, appearing by videoconference in federal court in Boston. They had both been arrested earlier on Monday and were later released on their own recognizance. ” [NY Times]

Accused Of Evading Taxes On Lottery Ticket Purchases. “According to the charging documents, the defendants conspired with others to purchase winning lottery tickets from the actual winners for cash, at a discount that was typically between 10-20 percent of each ticket’s value, thereby allowing the ticket holders to avoid reporting the winnings on their tax returns – a scheme commonly known as “ten-percenting.” The defendants and co-conspirators then allegedly presented the winning tickets to the Massachusetts Lottery Commission as their own and collected the full value of the tickets.” [DOJ]

More Than $20 Million In Lottery Winnings Claimed. “Between 2011 and 2019, the defendants together cashed more than 13,000 lottery tickets and claimed more than $20,989,284 in Massachusetts lottery winnings. Based upon their submitted lottery claims, in 2019, Ali Jaafar was the top individual lottery ticket casher for Massachusetts.” [DOJ]

Could Face 20 Years In Prison. “The charge of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater, and restitution. ” [DOJ]