NCA: “How did you buy the £400k house?” - Money launderer’s family: “We won the lotto...123 times”

6 Nov 2017 09:26 AM

The father of a convicted money launderer bought a £412,000 house with money he claimed he won with 123 prize-winning tickets in the Pakistan lottery.

Malik Abdullah Farooq, 81, said he enjoyed the incredible run of fortune on the Pakistan Prize Bond Draw between July 2012 and February 2013.

The National Crime Agency employed an expert statistician who said Farooq’s good luck was as likely as winning the UK National Lottery jackpot 40 weeks running.

Farooq and his son Kashaf Ali Khan, 44, both made the claims when they were arrested in September and October 2014.

Khan, of Prospect Lane, Birmingham, has since admitted money laundering by using criminal money to buy the house.

He also admitted a second money laundering count in relation to paying a £175,000 confiscation order – given after an earlier money laundering conviction in 2010 – with criminal cash.

Last week, at Birmingham Crown Court, Khan was sentenced to 22 months in jail after admitting he knew the money was the proceeds of crime.

In October 2009 the NCA caught him handing over a holdall to someone which contained £74,830 in cash.

The following September Khan admitted money laundering offences and received a suspended prison sentence together with an order to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

In January 2012 Khan was ordered to pay £175,000 because of the conviction.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs have no records of him working and despite Khan having no recorded legitimate income, he paid off the £175,000 in cash within 12 months.

He has now admitted paying off the confiscation order using further criminal cash.

In 2013 he used his father’s funds to buy the Prospect Lane property.

During the previous year, flurries of money from Dubai were paid into Farooq’s Pakistan bank account.

Farooq used black-market prize bond dealers in Pakistan 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 sacrifice an amount by selling their winning ticket to an agent for a lesser sum which they get immediately.

The black-market agents then sell on the winning tickets – for more than they are worth – to crooks needing to clean their criminal money who can then get prize organisers to issue payment in their name.

NCA senior investigating officer Phil Houghton said: “Kashaf Ali Khan has admitted two counts of money laundering because of the weight of evidence against him.

“He thought that he had the perfect explanation if questioned about how he funded the house purchase.

“He and his father possessed documentation to support their story of being genuine winners of the Pakistan prize bond scheme.

“Khan didn’t account for NCA investigators discovering the scheme’s black market and proving he had used it to clean criminal money.

“Offenders like Khan are at the centre of serious organised crime because they enable other high end crooks to move and clean their money.

“The issue poses a priority threat for the NCA and we do everything possible to combat it.”

Two money laundering charges against Farooq were left to lie on file.