The lawyer, Jason “Jay” Kurland, 46, asked lottery winners on his now-removed website to call him before even calling the Lottery Commission, saying, “I can help secure your wealth for generations.” Lawyers allege that Kurland encouraged his clients to invest in entities controlled by his co-defendants, Christopher Chierchio, Francis Smookler and Frangesco Russo.
The indictment, which was not unsafe on Tuesday, strikes Kurland, Chierchio, Smookler and Russo with 21 counts, including wire fraud and money laundering, and shows how they all funneled millions from three different lottery winners.
Smookler and Russo are also accused of threatening to torture, shoot and murder a woman’s wife and children for failing to pay a loan on time, as part of the extortionate extension and collection of credit costs. All four suspects pleaded not guilty Tuesday.
“The suspects thought touchingly that they could line up their pockets with lottery winnings without consequence, but today their luck ran out,” said Seth D. DuCharme, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Prosecutors said the four parts were part of the scheme between April 2019 and August 2020, and that investigators called where the men were allegedly heard discussing their scheme and tried to cover their tracks, according to court reports.
The scheme funded lavish lifestyles, prosecutors say
Kurland has been a practicing lawyer for 20 years and is a partner in the law firm Rivkin Radler, according to court records, which also state that Kurland clients from across the nation together have won $ 3 billion.
Prosecutors allege that Kurland proved to be someone who could be trusted by lottery winners to protect their profits and provide sound investment advice. Some lottery winners have paid millions of dollars to maintain its services, according to court records. Prosecutors also allege that Kurland directed his colleagues to return money to cover their tracks when the FBI began interviewing people connected to the case.
Tim Kasulis, a lawyer for Kurland, said in a statement that his client is looking forward to his day in court.
“Throughout his twenty years of unblemished legal career, Jason Kurland has always had the best interests of his clients at heart and remains so today,” Kasulis said.
Kurland used all the money from the luxury car scheme, including a $ 113,000 Porsche. CNN reached out to a spokeswoman for Kurland’s law firm for comment on the charges against him and his current status with the company. Kurland is on a $ 1 million bond for free.
Russo and Smookler were accused of investing some of the lottery winners’ money in a jewelry company, whose owner’s prosecutors say a large portion of the money was lost and later extorted. Lawyers claim Russo and Smookler are threatening the business owner for not paying the loan on time. Smookler told him in March in an intercepted interview “You will be f ** king tortured,” according to court reports. Russo told the man, “they will show you if they rip your son’s teeth out of his mouth … they will do worse things to your wife.”
Prosecutors said in a hearing Wednesday that investigators found a weapon at Smookler’s home this week. Smookler was released on a $ 2.5 million bond. CNN has reached out to Smookler’s lawyer for comment.
A magistrate’s judge initially approved a $ 2 million bond for Russo, but at a higher appeal Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis reversed that decision and ordered him to remain in custody, citing Russo’s violent threats and the fact that investigators found a tactical hunting rifle under his bed.
“I have been dealing with organized crime for 20 years. I have never come across threats like this,” Garaufis said during the teleconference hearing.
Defense attorney Joseph Conway said at the hearing that Russo’s threats were “nothing more than trying to get her money back.”
“These threats were colorful, they were boisterous, but they were nothing more than puffery,” Conway said.
Conway said in a statement to CNN that he was disappointed that Russo was being held and would “quickly seek to prove his innocence in court.”
“The fourth suspect, Chierchio, is one who accuses prosecutors of being a soldier in the Genoese crime family of La Cosa Nostra, an accusation refuted by his lawyer Gerald McMahon, saying Chierchio has never been associated with the mafia.” .
But prosecutors allege that Chierchio took millions of dollars from two lottery winners and spent it freely living a lively life that included driving around with a driver in a Cadillac Escalade, hunting association costs and living in a luxury $ 11,000-a-month apartment in Manhattan. Chierchio is free on a $ 3 million bond.
McMahon, in a statement to CNN, said Chierchio invested funds as part of a group that sold face masks and masks this spring because shortages of personal protective equipment grew due to concerns about coronavirus. McMahon said the Chierchio group worked with a state that agreed to buy $ 800 million in PPE but backed out of the deal, leaving the group with $ 40 million in PPE in a warehouse. McMahon said the group’s lawyers have sent a letter to the state asking for a solution to the dispute.
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