Attorney and Genovese soldier indicted in lottery scheme

[JohnnyS]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/nyre ... fraud.html

He called himself the “Lottery Lawyer,” developing a national reputation for helping high-profile lottery winners with their investments.

He promised to secure their wealth for generations and to protect them from scam artists.

But on Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused the lawyer, Jason M. Kurland, of working with a mob associate to steal millions of dollars from his clients.

Mr. Kurland, 46, was arrested on Tuesday morning at his home on Long Island alongside three other men — including Christopher Chierchio, 52, who prosecutors said was a reputed soldier for the Genovese crime family.

As part of the scheme, Mr. Kurland tricked three lottery winners who had hired him into putting $107 million into various investments, prosecutors said. The lottery winners lost a total of more than $80 million.

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One of them was the winner of last year’s $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot in South Carolina.

After persuading the lottery winners to invest, the four men then spent some of the funds on golf club memberships, yachts, private jets, a Porsche and other luxury cars and shopping sprees at stores like Fendi, prosecutors said.

“Lottery winners can’t believe their luck when they win millions of dollars, and the men we arrested this morning allegedly used that euphoric feeling to their advantage,” said William F. Sweeney Jr., head of the F.B.I.’s New York office.

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Mr. Kurland and his alleged co-conspirators face several counts of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. They each pleaded not guilty at their arraignments on Tuesday.

A lawyer for Mr. Kurland declined to comment. A lawyer for Mr. Chierchio said his client was not affiliated with the mafia and expected to be cleared of the charges.

Law enforcement officials had been wiretapping the men’s phone calls for months, including conversations in which they discussed whether they might go to jail.

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The lottery winners paid between $75,000 and $200,000 in upfront payments to hire Mr. Kurland and his law firm, according to court papers. Mr. Kurland then charged monthly fees of between $15,000 and $50,000.

A spokeswoman for Rivkin Radler, the law firm where Mr. Kurland has worked since 2018, said the firm was cooperating with the authorities and planned to remove him as a partner.

In a 2016 interview with Vice, Mr. Kurland discussed the prevalence of scams targeting lottery winners. “A lot of these winners are not sophisticated enough to see it,” he said, “so you really have to rely on the professionals.”

On Mr. Kurland’s Twitter account, he often urged lottery winners around the country to hire him, using hashtags like #callme. In previous interviews, he said he has represented lottery winners since 2011, specializing in navigating the laws around real estate and trusts.

Behind the scenes, prosecutors said, Mr. Kurland was getting kickbacks for steering lottery winners to invest in business deals controlled by Mr. Chierchio and the two other defendants, Frangesco Russo, 38, and Francis Smookler, 45.

Some of the deals involved companies that sold personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic to the state of California and to the New York Police Department, court papers showed.

During a phone call last month that was intercepted by law enforcement, Mr. Kurland told an associate that the growing coronavirus outbreak in Florida would bode well for business. “The worse it is the better,” he said, according to prosecutors.

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The men directed some of the lottery winners’ money to a jeweler named Gregory Altieri, who had promised sky-high returns to his investors. Last month, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused him of defrauding his investors in a $200 million Ponzi scheme.

Earlier this year, when Mr. Altieri failed to repay a loan, Mr. Russo and Mr. Smookler threatened to torture him and shoot his family, prosecutors said.

Mr. Russo’s father was a Colombo crime family captain who died while serving a life sentence in prison for murder, and he mentioned his father while threatening Mr. Altieri, prosecutors said.

A lawyer for Mr. Russo did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Smookler’s lawyer had no immediate comment.

Law enforcement officials are seeking to recover any stolen funds by seizing 13 bank accounts associated with the scheme, which had been going on since at least 2018.

In one instance, Mr. Kurland transferred $19.5 million out of a client’s account without the client’s permission and funneled much of it to Mr. Chierchio, prosecutors said.

In 2004, Mr. Chierchio pleaded guilty in a state case in Brooklyn to falsifying business records. Last year, he was acquitted at trial on bid-rigging charges.

Prosecutors said Mr. Chierchio lived in a $11,000-a-month luxury building in Manhattan and purports to run a plumbing business.

In a call last month that was intercepted by law enforcement, Mr. Chierchio brushed off an associate’s concerns about a federal investigation into the lottery scheme, saying he had been pursued by the authorities his entire life.

“So bring the F.B.I. Who cares?” Mr. Chierchio said, according to prosecutors. “It doesn’t matter. I laugh at them. OK? I laugh at them.”

In phone calls, Mr. Kurland discussed with his associates how to cover up the scheme, worried they were “playing with fire,” according to court papers. The men wondered if giving the money back to the lottery winners would thwart the investigation or if they could make the theft look like legitimate business transactions, prosecutors said.

At one point, according to court papers, Mr. Smookler and Mr. Russo predicted that they might face fraud charges; Mr. Smookler said on a phone call that he hoped to merely face a fine and not go to jail.

“We are in a little bit of a pickle,” he said.

[JohnnyS]

Some other news outlets said a Gambino mobster was involved but that looks to be a mistake.

[JohnnyS]

https://www.silive.com/news/2020/08/a-t ... tment.html

[Cheech]

this the same guy that owned strip clubs?

[TommyNoto]

Man the Westside really is in a league of their own . Having access to that much cash right now is a huge

This Chris guy is slick . The victims certainly have a civil / SEC case but criminal fraud might be harder to prove if the paper work was legit and the Cos weren’t shells and he seemed to have thought that thru.

Interesting he got off on the bid rigging case which is another blurry civil vs criminal type case

The Gambino Par funding is another similar blurry civil / SEC vs criminal type case.

Fascinating shit as some crews seemed to have tapped into some very lucrative business loan / private investment rackets. The merchant advance business has been booming as it’s business loansharking and legal and I wouldn’t be surprised LCN is a player in the business.

[dack2001]

Ridiculous, sometimes honest lawyers lose money on investments too...Feds should go after the real criminals on wall street...sure these are just two hard working guys trying to help people through tough time and they are after them because their names end in vowels. Feds should watch Brewsters Millions, you can't even spend that much money in 30 days, c'mon...

[Flushing]

Looks like Chierchio wrote a nice bio about himself on medium in 2019 (while the scam was going on):

https://medium.com/@christopherchierchi ... 57c8d57c94

[SonnyBlackstein]

Looks like Chierchio wrote a nice bio about himself on medium in 2019 (while the scam was going on):

https://medium.com/@christopherchierchi ... 57c8d57c94

Great find.

[SB1825]

This Chierchio guy had a twitter account (currently suspended), his own website (taken down), and a LinkedIn account (still up). https://www.crunchbase.com/person/christopher-chierchio

[JohnnyS]

from 2019 https://www.silive.com/news/2019/01/im- ... ation.html

[Wiseguy]

Here's the press release out of the Eastern District. The actual indictment is in the link below.



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
“Lottery Lawyer” and Three Co-Conspirators Indicted in $107 Million Scheme to Defraud Lottery-Winning Clients
Two Defendants Also Charged with Threatening to Kill Recipient of Usurious Loan
An indictment was unsealed earlier today in federal court in Brooklyn charging attorney Jason Kurland, Christopher Chierchio, Francis Smookler, a former securities broker, and Frangesco Russo with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering and money laundering conspiracy in connection with a scheme to defraud Kurland’s clients that resulted in $107 million in losses. In addition, Kurland was charged with honest services fraud for his role in the scheme, and Russo and Smookler are charged with extortionate extension and collection of credit for threatening to kill an individual and his family for failure to repay a usurious loan.

The defendants were arrested today and will be arraigned this afternoon via teleconference before United States Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom.

Seth D. DuCharme, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the arrests and charges.

“Defendant Kurland allegedly violated the law and his oath as a lawyer when he allowed co-conspirators to pillage his clients’ bank accounts for their own enrichment,” stated Acting United States Attorney DuCharme. “In addition, Russo and Smookler allegedly threatened to torture an individual’s wife and children. The defendants callously thought they could line their pockets with lottery winnings without consequence, but today their luck ran out.”

“Lottery winners can't believe their luck when they win millions of dollars, and the men we arrested this morning allegedly used that euphoric feeling to their advantage,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney. “The FBI New York discovered how these victims were persuaded to put large chunks of their cash into investments that benefited the defendants. Rather than try their luck at the lottery, these men resorted to defrauding the victims to get rich, but their gamble didn't pay off.”

The Scheme to Defraud the Lottery Victims

As set forth in court filings, Kurland is a self-dubbed “Lottery Lawyer” purporting to represent dozens of lottery winners throughout the country with total winnings of approximately $3 billion. One of the winners won the $1.5 billion Mega Millions lottery, another won the $245 million Powerball jackpot, and the third won the $150 million jackpot (together, the “Lottery Victims”). The Lottery Victims each paid Kurland and his law firm hundreds of thousands of dollars, in part so that he could advise them on how to safely invest their money. After gaining their trust with primarily traditional investments, Kurland steered his clients to invest in various entities and business deals controlled and directed by Russo, Smookler and Chierchio, and received kickbacks in return – which Kurland failed to disclose to his clients. The defendants then used the money from the Lottery Victims’ investments to keep their scheme going and to enrich themselves. A portion of these funds was funneled back to the Lottery Victims and falsely presented to them as “interest payments” on their investments, other funds went to Kurland as kickbacks, and millions of dollars were stolen to support the defendants’ lavish lifestyles – private jets, expensive vacations and luxury vehicles including two yachts. The funds that the defendants actually invested in various entities and deals were, in large part, eventually lost.

In intercepted calls cited in court documents, the defendants can be heard discussing their scheme, attempting to cover their tracks and expressing concern about what might happen to them if they were caught by law enforcement.

The Scheme to Extort Altieri

Russo’s and Smookler invested some of the Lottery Victims’ money with Gregory Altieri, a jewelry merchant, and then extended him a $250,000 “street loan.” Conversations recorded during the government’s investigation revealed that Russo and Smookler expected to be repaid over $400,000 for the $250,000 loan, and the threats Russo and Smookler made to Altieri in their attempt to collect it. Russo informed Altieri that he had a “few tactical shotguns . . . with lasers,” and Smookler told Altieri that if he did not fully repay the loan, “it’s just going to be unbelievable.” Russo compared himself to the mob-affiliated character in “Uncut Gems,” a movie that ends with the indebted diamond dealer shot dead. On another call, Russo told Altieri, “They’re gonna pop your head off in front of your f------ kids. This guy has no clue what he’s getting into.” Smookler told Altieri, “You watch my man, you f-----d me, now watch what I am gonna do to you, I’m coming brother. Full f-----g steam ahead.”

Russo and Smookler also threatened to harm Altieri’s family if Altieri did not repay the loan. Smookler told Altieri that, “[W]e are gonna find your wife today. That’s happening.” Russo informed Altieri that the people coming for him are “going to make you watch as they rip your son’s teeth out of his mouth, watch, they’re going to do worse things to your wife.”

The government has taken steps to recover funds stolen in connection with the charged scheme to defraud the Lottery Victims, including executing warrants to seize 13 bank accounts associated with the defendants’ scheme, and placing liens on three properties that Smookler and Russo allegedly purchased and/or renovated with stolen funds.

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Business & Securities Fraud Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Andrey Spektor and Lindsay K. Gerdes are in charge of the prosecution, assisted by Assistant United States Attorney Brian D. Morris of the Office’s Asset Forfeiture Unit and by a Special Agent of the Office’s Business & Securities Fraud Section.

The Defendants:

CHRISTOPHER CHIERCHIO
Age: 52
Staten Island, NY

JASON KURLAND
Age: 46
Dix Hills, NY

FRANGESCO RUSSO
Age: 38
Roslyn, NY

FRANCIS SMOOKLER
Age: 45
Oyster Bay, NY

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 20-CR-306 (NGG)

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/lo ... ud-lottery

[gohnjotti]

We have to assume Frangesco Russo is at least somewhat close to his grandfather, Andrew “Andy Mush” Russo and, by extension, the upper echelons of the Colombo family. Seems like Frangesco picked up right where his father left off. JoJo Russo had hundreds of thousands of dollars on the street himself, which he took over from Andy Mush when Mush went to prison in ‘87, from what I can gather from Greg Scarpa’s files.

[TommyNoto]

from 2019 https://www.silive.com/news/2019/01/im- ... ation.html

I agree with his lawyer that was a weak case. They really have a hard on for this guy huh , seems like he has big $ and maybe a little too flashy ?

[Philly d]

Looks like Chierchio wrote a nice bio about himself on medium in 2019 (while the scam was going on):

https://medium.com/@christopherchierchi ... 57c8d57c94

He must have paid a service to hide his bad searches. He has a bunch of the same write ups.

[Extortion]

Man the Westside really is in a league of their own . Having access to that much cash right now is a huge

This Chris guy is slick . The victims certainly have a civil / SEC case but criminal fraud might be harder to prove if the paper work was legit and the Cos weren’t shells and he seemed to have thought that thru.

Interesting he got off on the bid rigging case which is another blurry civil vs criminal type case

The Gambino Par funding is another similar blurry civil / SEC vs criminal type case.

Fascinating shit as some crews seemed to have tapped into some very lucrative business loan / private investment rackets. The merchant advance business has been booming as it’s business loansharking and legal and I wouldn’t be surprised LCN is a player in the business.

Yeah, the amount of money is staggering. I don’t blame Chierchio’s nonchalant attitude towards the feds since he’ll probably only do a few years unless the judge hammers him or something unorthodox. Hell, I’d do a couple of years for multiple millions if they found ways to hide them sufficiently from the feds which they probably did but 13 bank accounts and the two large properties...Wonder if they seized the yachts I imagine they did so they gotta hope they put a few million away somehow where the feds cant get it.