Hilliard man who won $1 million on lottery ticket admits filing tax fraud, hiding cash overseas
A Hilliard man admitted Tuesday in federal court that he tried to hide his gambling winnings — including the proceeds from a $1 million lottery ticket — through fraudulent tax filings and money wired to overseas bank accounts.
Mustafa Shalash, 54, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus to a single felony count of making and subscribing a false return with the IRS. He faces a potential prison term of up to 36 months at sentencing, and will have to pay restitution of nearly $256,000.
According to court documents, Shalash won $1 million with a single lottery ticket in 2015. He received a lump payout of $710,000, with $290,000 withheld for taxes.
However, in his 2015 federal tax return, Shalash reported more than $1 million in gambling winnings and losses in an attempt “to eliminate his taxable gambling income and recover taxes that had been withheld,” prosecutors charged in court documents.
Shalash also wire transferred $690,000 abroad, including $440,000 he deposited into a bank account in Jordan that was under his control, according to documents.
Between 2014 and 2019, Shalash made other deposits into his overseas accounts. This included obtaining cashiers checks in the United States, then flying to Jordan to deposit the funds directly there, according to documents.
But Shalash did not disclose his foreign bank accounts as required as part of his federal tax filings, according to documents.
“Concealing bank accounts overseas and inflating losses on a tax return is a recipe for criminal tax prosecution,” Bryant Jackson, special agent in charge at the IRS’ criminal investigation field office in Cincinnati, said in a released statement.
mkovac@dispatch.com
@OhioCapitalBlog
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Hilliard man who won $1 million on lottery ticket admits tax fraud
