The self-proclaimed “Lottery Lawyer” has been accused in a scheme in which tens of thousands of millions of dollars were stolen from lottery winners, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
New York attorney Jason Kurland, 46, is accused of gaining the trust of his clients, some of whom won big in Mega Millions and Powerball, and sending her to invest in companies controlled by three other people who also be accused. It is claimed that Kurland has received kickbacks in the scheme.
More than $ 107 million was invested in the scheme, of which more than $ 80 million was stolen or lost, Prose said. The indictment was dismissed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn.
Kurland “was able to co-plunder his clients’ bank accounts for their own enrichment,” Acting U.S. Attorney Seth DuCharme said in a statement.
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Christopher Chierchio, 52, who is described in a court document as a soldier in the Genovese crime family; former security broker Francis Smookler, 45; and Frangesco Russo, 38, were also charged.
All four are accused of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and money laundering conspiracy, prosecutors said. Kurland was also charged with fraud of honest services.
All four pleaded not guilty Tuesday, and all but Russo were released on bail, The Associated Press reported.
Russo and Smookler are also accused of threatening to kill a jewelery merchant and torturing his wife and son, unless the merchant repays a “street loan” of $ 250,000 in the amount of more than $ 400,000, prosecutors said. The buyer, Gregory Altieri, was charged last month in what prosecutors called a $ 200 million Ponzi scheme. Some of the money of the lottery victims was invested at Altieri, and it was lost, but the loan was mentioned as a separate case in court documents.
A lawyer for Chierchio, Gerald J. McMahon, said his client was “not guilty of these fraudulent charges” and denied that Chierchio was a member of organized crime. “If he was not Italian, there would be no accusation of this nature,” McMahon told the AP.
One of the attorneys representing Russo, Joseph Conway, said in an email that Russo “looks forward to presenting evidence at a future trial to clear his name of these prosecutors.” Bond was put on $ 2 million, but he was still detained Tuesday night pending a call from prosecutors.
Emails seeking comments seeking attorneys named as representatives of Kurland and Smookler were not immediately returned Tuesday night.
Among the victims of the scheme was one who won $ 1.5 billion in Mega Millions and another person who won a $ 245 million Powerball jackpot, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The lottery winners sought help from Kurland and his company for investment advice, prosecutors said.
Kurland won their trust with traditional investment options from large and well-known institutions, but he is then alleged to have sent them to invest in companies or other entities controlled and directed by Russo, Smookler and Chierchio, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Kurland received paid kickbacks and that the investments were used to keep the scheme going. The money was stolen to ‘finance low-income lifestyles’, prosecutors said.
Kurland’s law firm, Rivkin Radler, said prosecutors had taken it “by complete surprise” and that it was cooperating with the federal investigation, the AP reported. The company issued a statement saying it “took immediate steps to remove Mr Kurland as a partner.”
Kurland has been interviewed in the past about big lottery jackpots, including by NBC News.
By July, some of the suspects, who were aware of an FBI investigation, were able to get to jail, according to court documents.
Smookler is alleged to have told Chierchio in one call that “we must [expletive] give that money back to these people, “and he expressed concern that the federal government had documents, according to court documents.
Court documents say Kurland stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in indefinite kickbacks from the investments, while “the other suspects stole much more money directly from the investments.”
