Money launderer lied about 123 lottery wins
A MONEY launderer who claimed he won the lottery 123 times has been forced to pay back almost £500,000 after the National Crime Agency (NCA) hired a statistician to prove he was lying.
Kashaf Ali Khan, 45, of Solihull, in the West Midlands, bought a £412,000 house in the town with money he claimed he had won in the Pakistani lottery.
But the NCA employed a statistician to prove the convicted criminal was lying, and the expert said his “haul” was as likely as winning the UK Lottery jackpot 40 weeks running.
As a result, the agency has now seized £472,740 from Khan.
Khan, who later admitted money laundering by using criminal money to buy the house, has now had to sell the property to pay off the confiscation order.
The 45-year-old made the purchase in his elderly father’s name.
NCA investigating officer Phil Houghton said: “Khan wrongfully thought he could get away with funding his lifestyle by criminal means.
“Offenders like Khan play an enabling role for other criminals to move and clean the proceeds of crime. They will be relentlessly pursued by the NCA.
“This order is a warning to those who believe they can benefit financially from a criminal lifestyle – crime doesn’t pay.”
Using his father’s account, Khan used black-market prize bond dealers in Pakistan in a bid to fool investigators into believing he had won legitimate prizes.
Winners of the Pakistan state lottery have to wait several weeks to collect their winnings. Because of that, some are willing to take a loss and sell their winning ticket to an agent for a lesser amount which they get immediately.
The black-market agents then sell on the winning tickets – for more than they are worth – to criminals like Khan, needing to clean their criminal money who can then get prize organisers to issue the payment in their name.