A Long Island lawyer who bills himself as the “lottery lawyer” ran a revamped scheme to win jackpots from more than $ 100 million in prize money, Brooklyn federal prosecutors claimed Tuesday.
Jason Kurland, 46, cultivated clients from across the nation, including a winner of $ 1.5 billion Mega Millions, and promised to invest their profits – but instead threw cash into shady investments made by renowned Genovese crime family soldier Christopher Chierchio and two other colleagues, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District said.
Kurland apparently received kickbacks for sending the money to Chierchio (52) and his partners, who returned part of the lottery winners’ money to them under the guarantee that they were ‘interest payments’ on their false investments. But the ‘winners’ ended in loss.
The lawyer, who oversaw the scam from 2018 to this year, robbed $ 107 million of unsuspecting investors, prosecutors claimed.
Jason Kurland is accused of winning customers’ profits for shady, mob-linked investments.
(Rivkin Radler LLP)
The money instead funded the scammers’ lavish lifestyles – which included expensive vacations, private jets and even two yachts, the feds claimed.
“Lottery winners cannot believe their luck if they win millions of dollars, and the men we arrested this morning have all used that euphoric feeling to their advantage,” William Sweeney, assistant director general of the FBI, said in a statement. Tuesday.
“The FBI New York discovered how these victims were persuaded to invest large portions of their cash in investments that benefited the suspects,” Sweeney said. “Rather than try their luck at the lottery, these men knew how to trick the victims into getting rich, but their gambling does not pay off.”
Kurland has apparently overseen the 2018-2020 scam.
Two other accused scammers, the former security broker Francis Smookler, 45, and the 38-year-old Frangesco Russo, are also accused of using some money they received from Kurland’s customers to forge a $ 250,000 “street loan” to jewelry merchant Gregory Altieri, prosecutors said.
MEN HIT $ 10 MILLION LOTTERY JACKPOT WITH HOTEL ROOM MURDER
Russo and Smookler, who expected Altieri to repay $ 400,000, then wanted to threaten the jeweler and his family for the return, the alleged feds.
“They’re going to turn your head for your f-ng kids,” Russo is thought to have heard from Alteiri on a federal wire tap. “This man has no idea what he’s getting into.”
In another tapped call, Russo allegedly told Altieri that the people who come before him “would wake you up if they rip your son’s teeth out of his mouth. Look, they will do worse things to your wife.”
All four men were arrained over wire fraud, money laundering and collusion costs via teleconference by U.S. Magistrates Judge Lois Bloom.
They all pleaded not guilty and were all released on bond. The bonds were set at $ 3 million for Chierchio, $ 2.5 million for Smookler, $ 2 million for Russo, and $ 1 million for Kurland.
Federal prosecutors said they were addressing Russo’s bond.
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Last year, Chierchio, of Staten Island, was released in an unrelated case bid rig in the Manhattan Supreme Court. He was accused of conspiring to build construction bids for luxury apartments for construction projects in Brooklyn, the State Island Advance reported at the time.
Last month, federal prosecutors charged Altieri with a separate charge of fraud that accused him of running a two-year $ 200 million Ponzi scheme by luring investors with fake jewelry deals and promised inflated returns.
This story first appeared in the New York Post.
