Former Wakefield Attorney Sentenced to Prison for Concealing Lottery Ticket Proceeds from Bankruptcy Creditors and Filing a False Tax Return

BOSTON—A Wakefield man was sentenced today in federal court for bankruptcy fraud for concealing his interest in two $1 million winning lottery scratch tickets, as well as for filing a false tax return.

JAMES GREGSON, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole, to three years’ imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release. GREGSON was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $790,000 to his bankruptcy creditors and $232,971 to the Internal Revenue Service. In October 2010, GREGSON pleaded guilty to two counts of bankruptcy fraud and one count of filing a false tax return.

Had the case proceeded to trial, the government’s evidence would have proven that GREGSON, then an attorney licensed in Massachusetts, had purchased from the original owners a $1 million winning “Windfall” lottery that paid, after taxes, $35,000 annually. In 2003, GREGSON also purchased the right to at least 15 $35,000 annual payments from a second $1 million wining “Bonus for Life” lottery ticket. GREGSON failed to disclose his interest in either, in his 2005 bankruptcy case. The government calculated the value of the two tickets at the time of the bankruptcy filing to be a total of approximately $790,000.

GREGSON testified falsely under oath that his parents had funded the purchase of the ticket, when in fact GREGSON himself had done so, after his bankruptcy trustee received a tip that GREGSON owned a winning lottery ticket. To support his testimony, GREGSON procured a false affidavit from a family member. GREGSON also filed a 2003 federal income tax return which falsely stated that his total taxable income was $0, when in fact it was more than $450,000 and he owed about $169,000 in taxes that year.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; William Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation - Boston Field Division; and Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Office, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. Balthazard of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit.