An 81-year-old man from Lynn, Massachusetts, was sentenced Monday to two months in prison for his part in a multimillion-dollar lottery scam, according to federal prosecutors.
Clarance Jones, 81, pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to commit tax fraud and filing false tax returns.
The Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's office said Jones was a part of a "ten-percenting" scheme in which he bought millions of dollars of winning Massachusetts state lottery tickets at a discount to help winners avoid taxes.
Jones was the state's "most prolific lottery winner" between Jan. 1, 2013, and May 14, 2014, claiming nearly 1,750 tickets during that window. But all those wins were not due to incredible luck.
Two store owners who prosecutors said were also involved with the scheme, George Kinslieh and Bhavna Patel, also pleaded guilty earlier this month to conspiring to defraud the IRS.
The store owners were accused of giving Jones the winning tickets, which he claimed as his own. Jones reported the winnings on his tax returns, but offset them with purported gambling losses in the paperwork.
The three then shared the excess prize money, prosecutors said.
Let this be a lesson to the rest of you.
Wait until you're old if you're going to conspire to commit tax fraud, and file false tax returns, so that you get a really short prison sentence.
Al Capone was sent to Alcatraz for tax fraud. Not bootlegging.
The IRS is a formidable opponent.
What are you going to do with your ill gotten gains? Declare them on your tax return. List your occupation as criminal.
I literally laughed out loud when you said,"List your occupation as Criminal!" LMAO! :D
KY Floyd
You may be onto something KY. Wesley Snipes served 3 years for tax issues. Martha Stewart served 5 months & Ol Clarence hit the jackpot with a 2-month sentence. l mean having Grandpa behind bars is downright awful. They released Brooks Hatlen for crying out loud, had too.
Jones reported the winnings on his tax returns, but offset them with purported gambling losses in the paperwork.
Bet he though his shoe box full of losing ticket would satisfy the IRS. One of the reasons I cringe every time I read free tax advice on here on how to skirt IRS rules.
"List your occupation as criminal. "
It's not as well known as the one in the constitution, but there's also a taxpayer's bill of rights. Unlike the one in the constitution, the taxpayer's bill of rights specifically includes a right to privacy, as well as a right to confidentiality. The latter means that the information you provide can only be released to third parties with your permission or as required by law. I've never searched for a definitive answer, but I've long been under the impression that as long as you report the income the IRS isn't supposed to notify law enforcement if you report gaining that income as a result of criminal activity.
Considering that the job of the IRS is to collect as much tax as you income warrants it would be counterproductive for them to turn in people who report criminal income.
"Bet he though his shoe box full of losing ticket would satisfy the IRS."
I'm not going to go looking for the old stories about this guy, but IIRC Massachusetts went after him several years ago. They may not have specifically been trying to charge him with tax evasion, but they never believed that he really won all those prizes legitimately or that he really traveled all over the state buying all the losing tickets.
Of course this guy is far different than the people who might win a few grand and write it off with tickets they didn't really buy. My guess is that the IRS figures that it's difficult to prove that the evidence of deductions presented by the typical winner is fake, and that even if they didn't really spend that much on losing tickets in the same tax year they spent enough overall that they're not ahead of the game. Maybe it would be worth the bother to make examples of a few of those people, but on an individual basis it's probably not a very efficient use of their resources. It's not offered as advice, but the information I'll give for free is that I directly know of one instance in which a guy claimed 10k in losses after winning 10k with a MM ticket and wasn't audited.
"I directly know of one instance in which a guy claimed 10k in losses after winning 10k with a MM ticket and wasn't audited."
Reminds me of guy that "forgot" to add a W-2G to his income and he wasn't audited either until a couple of years later. The IRS probably has a winnings amount that triggers an audit and $10,000 might be below it.
That goes on all the time with illegals winning on scratch offs and needing a buddy to cash it in who has a green card or social security card here in N.C.