“I don’t see how this defrauds the lottery.
The scheme defrauds the taxing authorities and provides monies to questionable people.”
It seems like the taxing authorities are the questionable people these days.
I still do not see how this is illegal.
if you buy a lottery ticket and decide to sell or give it to me how is that illegal?
FTA——After the Jaafars were labeled “high frequency winners,” the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission launched an investigation that suspended the trio in May of 2019.
In the summer of 2020, both Yousef and Mohamed – the latter of whom previously showed promise as an intern for then-Senator John Kerry – were turned away at the lottery office.
Three years later, in November 2023, Mohamed, 33, pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy charge and was subsequently sentenced to six months behind bars, $964,000 in restitution, and two-year ban on lottery activities, the Boston Globe reported.
Ali and Yousef, 29, went to trial in December, and were both found guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count each of filing a false tax return, according to the US District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.
Ali was sentenced to five years in prison, and Yousef with 50 months, the DA said.
“Instead of using business savvy and skill to build a legitimate multi-generational family business, the Jaafars carried out a complex decade-long tax and lottery scam, building a vast network of co-conspirators to further their illegal activities,” said Joleen Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston.
“Tax violations have been erroneously referred to as victimless crimes, but it’s the honest law-abiding citizen who is harmed when someone tries to manipulate our nation’s tax system.”