Gangland 1/11/2024

[Dr031718]

Snitch In $100 Million Lottery Winners Ripoff The Big Winner In The Case

The sensational case involving the $103 million ripoff of three mega Lottery winners is over. It's unlikely the unlucky Lottery winners have gotten any of their money back yet from the $10.4 million the feds seized, or from any properties that have been forfeited.

But the losers and winners are already known: Self-described Lottery Lawyer Jason (Jay) Kurland got hit the hardest. Kurland, 49, is cooling his heels behind bars at the federal prison complex in Fort Dix and is slated to be locked up for another 10 years.

Genovese wiseguy Christopher Chierchio is behind bars in Danbury and isn't slated for release until December of 2027. But it's hard to describe the 55-year-old gangster as a loser. He stole $30 million dollars and wrangled a five-year deal from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office. That shakes out as 51 months behind bars for $30 million. Most mobsters would call that a good deal, especially since the feds only seized about $7.5 million from him.

The biggest winner in the case is Francis (Frank) Smookler, a stock broker involved with Kurland and co-defendant Frangesco (Frankie) Russo in the ripoff scheme from the outset. Smookler, 48, jumped at the chance to be a snitch when he was arrested, and then spent much of the next few years living in a Caribbean condo he bought with money stolen from Lottery winners.

And he didn't spend a single night in jail.

According to court testimony, Smookler, who lived next door to Kurland in Dix Hills in 2015, was the conduit who brought the Lottery Lawyer and Russo, the grandson of the late Colombo boss Andrew (Mush) Russo, together as partners in a so-called Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) business the trio used to steal more than $80 million from Kurland's clients.

Russo, 41, also flipped and became a cooperating witness. He testified that he had known Smookler for about 25 years, going back to when he was 14 or 15 years old when they were neighbors in Old Brookville.

Smookler was sentenced to probation three weeks ago, but for reasons that make no sense to Gang Land, the sentencing memos filed by the government and his lawyer are sealed and the official judgment that details the specifics of his sentence — sources say he was given five years of probation — has not been docketed yet by Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis.

But the wily ex-stock broker, who didn't need his passport to get to Saint John, the smallest of the three U.S. Virgin Islands where he lived while waiting to testify against Kurland last year, wasted no time in seeking the passport he surrendered when he was arrested, and getting Judge Garaufis to order it returned to him.

Smookler's attorney, Kevin Keating, noting that AUSA Danielle Kudla had consented to the request, asked the judge to order Pretrial Services Officer Andrew Berglind to return the passport to Smookler this past Monday. Judge Garaufis signed the order on Tuesday.

The case was filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, and presided over by Judge Garaufis. But the entire case, including the trial of Kurland, and the cases against Chierchio, Smookler and Russo, were handled by their Manhattan counterparts because Kurland's trial lawyer was married at the time to a top prosecutor in the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office.

Keating did not respond to a call from Gang Land, so we cannot state whether Smookler is planning a getaway that requires him to use his passport, or whether it's just a request in the normal course of business for a cooperating witness who's been sentenced.

Back in April of 2021, a month after he pleaded guilty to stealing $46 million and agreed to forfeit $3.5 million, you never would have known that Smookler was a scheming swindler if you ran into him on a fishing excursion in the sparkling blue waters near sunny Saint John.

Party boat captain Joshua Bourg certainly didn't when Smookler, who was living large in a $1 million Saint John condo he and codefendant Russo had bought with Lottery winners money they stole, boated a 39.5 pound mahi-mahi to win the Top Angler prize during an annual Virgin Islands event on Sunday, April 25, according to the All At Sea Caribbean.

"We had an idea it was a bigger one than the other fish we caught, so we thought we had a chance at the top prize," said Smookler, who was described by the Caribbean publication as "an avid fisherman" who was a "first-time tournament winner."

During their heyday as bigtime crooks, Smookler and Russo often chartered a private jet — at $27,000 a trip — to fly back and forth from New York, Miami and "Saint John, where Smookler and Russo own homes together," prosecutors had stated when they allegedly tried to detain Russo and Smookler as dangers to the community.

But "Smookler began his course of cooperation immediately following his arrest," according to a filing by Keating, and only Russo was jailed without bail.

Russo, 41, agreed to cooperate more than a year and a half later and was released on bail in May of 2022, after spending nearly 21 months behind bars.

In October, he was sentenced to time served, three years of supervised release, and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service, as directed by the Probation Department. He was ordered to pay $73.4 million in restitution. Russo was directed to pay $800 immediately and to make monthly payments of 15% of his gross salary for the next 20 years.

The sentencing memos filed by the government and Russo's lawyer are sealed.

A few months before he was sentenced, Garaufis gave Russo permission to travel to Saint John and spend a week at the condo he still owned with Smookler with his fiancé, a woman who worked for an MCA business that he, Smookler and Kurland had used to steal millions of dollars from the Lottery winners. Russo was slated to forfeit the condo after he was sentenced, according to attorney Florian Miedel.

Russo and Smookler also forfeited Boston Whaler speedboats —they cost about $500,000 each — as well as a Miami property that sources say the duo owned. Their lawyers, the attorneys for Kurland, Chierchio, as well as the lawyers for one of the lottery winners, either declined to comment or did not return calls from Gang Land.

For reasons that make no sense to Gang Land, the Public Information Officer for Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office declined to answer any questions about the case, including how much, if any, of the $103 million that was stolen from the Lottery winners and recovered by the feds, has been returned to the victims in the case — the unlucky Lottery winners.

Did they get any of it back yet, or is it still tied up in the usual government bureaucracy? Gang Land asked. The spokesman, Nick Biase, declined to say.

Biase was also mum about whether any of the defendants have forfeited any money, or paid any in restitution, or if any properties were forfeited, and how much money they fetched. He also declined to detail the specifics of Smookler's sentencing, because, the spokesman said, Judge Garaufis hasn't done so yet.

U.S. Parole Commission Treats Murder Machine Mobster Better Than Ex-Westies Boss

The U.S. Parole Commission decided that 35 years behind bars was sufficient punishment for Anthony Senter, a Luchese mobster who was convicted of 10 murders.

But don't try using that decision as a yardstick for other cases: Twice now, the USPC has denied parole for ex-Westies leader James Coonan, who is older, has been jailed longer, is guilty of fewer killings, and whose prison record is as good, if not better than Senter's, Gang Land has learned.

The first denial, according to a government filing in Manhattan Federal Court, came on April 8, 2021. The next was February 27, 2023, when the hearing examiner stated that Coonan's "regret comes through," but his crimes "shock[ed] the conscience," and his "release prior to (his) mandatory release date (in 2030) would promote disrespect for the law and depreciate the seriousness of his crimes."

At 77, Coonan is nine years older than Senter who is 68. Senter was a charter member of the Roy DeMeo mob crew that is credited with killing more than 75 victims and is the focal point of Murder Machine, a book by Gene Mustain and yours truly. Both gangsters were involved in murders with DeMeo in the late 1970s, according to court records.

Coonan had his own ties to the DeMeo crew, a bond sealed in cold cash and blood. DeMeo bankrolled Coonan with $50,000 to beef up his loanshark business. He also killed the Westies former leader, Mickey Spillane, to pave the way for Coonan to take over the Irish-American gang that was based in Hell's Kitchen, as is detailed in Murder Machine.

Unlike the USPC's positive decision for Senter, which "granted parole" because "the Commission determined that he had substantially observed the rules of the institution and that his release in June 2024 would not jeopardize the public welfare," the negative rulings for Coonan were based on the severity of the crimes he committed.

The hearing examiner at the February 2023 hearing gave little importance to the testimony by Bureau of Prisons official Richard Raup, the unit manager at Coonan's prison who has known the inmae for 19 years. Raup stated that Coonan was "very influential on trying to guide some of these young knuckleheads, so to speak, down the right path," according to a filing by Coonan's lawyers.

The transcript of Coonan's 2023 parole hearing, write Coonan attorneys Joseph Corozzo and Angela Lipsman, "shows that the USPC denied Mr. Coonan parole-not because he had not been rehabilitated, but because the USPC determined that any amount of rehabilitation is entirely irrelevant given Mr. Coonan's original crimes."

Denied twice by the USPC, Coonan, who has been in prison since 1986, cited the First Step Act of 2018 and sought a compassionate release in the Court where he was found guilty of three murders. But the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office says the Act doesn't apply to oldsters guilty of pre-1987 crimes and has asked Judge Paul Gardephe to dismiss Coonan's motion out of hand.

The feds are dead wrong about that, say Corozzo and Lipsman. The statute reads that "in any case" the court "may reduce the term of imprisonment and may impose a term of probation or supervised release" if "it finds extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant such a reduction," for inmates who have exhausted their administrative obligations with the prison system, the lawyers wrote.

The attorneys slammed AUSA Jerry Fang for arguing that the words "any case" in the Act "should be construed as limited" to post-1987 crimes because "it is likely" the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will exclude "old law" defendants "in the future." Corozzo and Lipsman argue that "the statute must be interpreted as it is, not as the Second Circuit may or may not hold in a future case."

They note that in 2020, two Manhattan Federal Court Judges gave compassionate release to inmates who had committed "old law" crimes, in 1983 and 1984, and were under the jusridistion of the USPC.

In a January 2 filing, they also argue it's age discrimination for the feds to say that oldsters found guilty of pre-1987 crimes don't have the same legal rights under the First Step Act to compassion as inmates guilty of more recent crimes. "This age discrimination," they argue, "would violate the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause as it would fail even the lowest tier of constitutional scrutiny."

The government's arrogance in refusing to address the merits of Coonan's claim, the lawyers argue, is a good reason why the judge should grant the aging gangster's motion for compassion.

There are several extraordinary and compelling reasons why Coonan deserves compassion, they wrote. They include Coonan's "nearly unblemished prison record," his "rehabilitation of other inmates and himself," his age, his numerous medical ailments — he is partially deaf, is obese, has high blood pressure, grade 2 retinopathy and needs laser surgery to keep him from going blind — as well as the 37 years he has spent in prison.

The harsh prison conditions that have caused him to lose all his teeth and have exacerbated all his medical ailments as well as the need of his 80-year-old wife Edna "who is in declining physical and neurological health," to have Connan help care for her in their Hazlet, New Jersey home are also "extraordinary and compelling reasons" for compassion, the lawyers wrote.

Over the years, Coonan has been "in constant contact with his family" and while "the opportunity to care for his wife and spend the remainder of their lives together will no doubt benefit Mrs. Coonan" it will "all but guarantee Coonan's positive re-entry into society and the safety of the community," they argue.

"Coonan has been an exemplary inmate" who has "worked hard over the last four decades to educate himself, mentor many other inmates of all ages," the lawyers wrote. He has "a single, low-value infraction" for taking part "in a prohibited 3-way telephone call" decades ago, they wrote, when he was "inquiring about the health of his minor child who, at that point in time, was gravely ill."

And Coonan has a job waiting for him when he is released, the lawyers wrote, working for a rebar company, according to a letter from Michael Cahill, the president of B&R Rebar LLC filed with the court.

Corozzo steadfastly declined to compare the USPC's different rulings for his client and Senter, both "old law" coconspirators of Roy DeMeo. "We filed the motion in the District Court because we think it will be more fair than the Parole Commission has been in the past," the lawyer said. "The Parole Commission has repeatedly denied Mr. Coonan's applications without just cause."

Senter, who will be paroled in June, was released into a halfway house on November 30, as Gang Land reported last month. Coonan is housed at the Schuylkill federal prison in Minersville, PA, and is slated for release in 2030.

Judge Goes Easy On Mob Loanshark Who Threatens His Victims, And His Mom Too

Brooklyn Federal Judge Eric Vitaliano gave a break last month to mob loanshark Chris Bantis. The recidivist gangster had asked for leniency so he could "care for his mother in her old age."

This was a bit of a switch from his prior comments about his mom. The feds noted that the last time Bantis was home he was "fighting" with his aging mother and called her a "sick demented twisted fucking woman" for calling the cops on him.

Vitaliano rejected the request by prosecutors to keep Bantis locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center for at least five more months, until June. Instead, the judge gave the 57-year-old Gambino family associate, who faced the music seated in a wheelchair, a below guidelines sentence that will end his stay at the MDC on Saturday, where he's been housed since September of 2021.
Gang Land believes that Bantis will be returning to his mom's home when he is released, since the gangster, who has been detained since September 9, 2021, when he was arrested for threatening relatives of two cooperating witnesses who had fingered him as a loanshark a decade ago, has no other place to go. That will most likely be tomorrow since his official release date is Saturday, January 13.

The sentencing memos filed by Bantis's federal defenders Nora Hirozawa and Marissa Sherman were still sealed yesterday, even though they shouldn't be, and the lawyers told Judge Vitaliano they would publicly file them earlier this week, according to the judge's courtroom deputy.

In the government filing, prosecutors told Vitaliano that the week before his arrest, Bantis "was acting aggressively" and "fighting more with his mother, yelling and screaming, throwing things in his house." They asked the judge to mete out a 39-month prison term for Bantis, two months below the high end of the 33-to-41 month guidelines for his latest loansharking conviction.

Vitaliano had sentenced Bantis to 42 months in prison for his 2013 loansharking indictment.

In their sentencing memo, prosecutors Lindsey Oken and Tara McGrath wrote that on August 28, 2021, his "mother called 911 in order to get the defendant to 'leave [her] alone'" and that she told police that her son had called her a "piece of shit," and had also "threatened to kill his brothers."

In asking Vitaliano to reject the gangster's request for "a sentence of time-served so that he can 'care for his mother in her old age,'" the prosecutors wrote that in a text to his daughter that same day, Bantis had called his mom "a sick demented Twisted fucking woman" who was "a fucking rat" for calling "the cops on (her) own son" and that he never wanted to speak to her again.

But the judge's decision was closer to the gangster's "time-served" position on the issue than the 39 months requested by the government.

Vitaliano sentenced Bantis to "time served plus 30 days" to be followed by a two year stretch of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay for a "mental health treatment program" determined by the Probation Department as well as the cost of any "psychotropic medications" that were prescribed for him.

Bantis video snapshotBantis was also ordered to have no contact with the loanshark victim in his 2022 indictment. He was also told to steer clear of other victims in his 10 year old case, including relatives of two witnesses whom he was charged with threatening on September 8, 2021 at the store they ran on Fort Hamiliton Parkway a few blocks from his Dyker Heights home. According to the feds, it was part of a three-year-long campaign of terror against the shop owners.

Bantis was arrested a day later and charged with threatening them with words and a "pipe wrapped in a towel" at the store.

But his lawyers used a surveillance videotape that showed Bantis across the street from the store, where one of the alleged victims was seen threatening him. That was enough to stymie the feds and win a hung jury with the panel evenly divided 6-6 on his guilt.

Last year, prosecutors agreed to defer a second trial and drop the witness retaliation charges as long as Bantis remains crime free for three years after he concludes whatever term he got for loansharking.

The three year term starts the day he is released from the MDC.

[Shellackhead]

Thanks for posting.

Hopefully Senter decides to jump on youtube & talk highly unlikely though

[luciang]

Thank you for posting

[DonPeppino386]

Thanks for posting!

[SonnyBlackstein]

Appreciate the post

[Blunts]

Thanks for posting. That lottery scam sounds like they made out very well in the end and some big money moving there too. The mob isn't as dead as people say. Guy got 5 years made $30 million and only had to give $7.5 million back. Almost sounds worth it.

Strange they let Senter out really with a similar case getting told no chance. Wonder what Testa's lawyer is doing about his situation.

[furiofromnaples]

Thanks for posting. That lottery scam sounds like they made out very well in the end and some big money moving there too. The mob isn't as dead as people say. Guy got 5 years made $30 million and only had to give $7.5 million back. Almost sounds worth it.

Strange they let Senter out really with a similar case getting told no chance. Wonder what Testa's lawyer is doing about his situation.

Seem strange that was sentenced with the same crimes,Senter is out and Testa not.

[Blunts]

Thanks for posting. That lottery scam sounds like they made out very well in the end and some big money moving there too. The mob isn't as dead as people say. Guy got 5 years made $30 million and only had to give $7.5 million back. Almost sounds worth it.

Strange they let Senter out really with a similar case getting told no chance. Wonder what Testa's lawyer is doing about his situation.

Seem strange that was sentenced with the same crimes,Senter is out and Testa not.

The only reasonable explanation is Testa was more involved in fuckery while locked up whereas Senters record is said to be clean while inside. If Testa is the same there is a real fucked up standard for parole given they were sentenced together for the same crimes. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[CornerBoy]

Thanks for posting. That lottery scam sounds like they made out very well in the end and some big money moving there too. The mob isn't as dead as people say. Guy got 5 years made $30 million and only had to give $7.5 million back. Almost sounds worth it.

Strange they let Senter out really with a similar case getting told no chance. Wonder what Testa's lawyer is doing about his situation.

If it is in a camp then mayy be worth it to some ppl

[furiofromnaples]

Thanks for posting. That lottery scam sounds like they made out very well in the end and some big money moving there too. The mob isn't as dead as people say. Guy got 5 years made $30 million and only had to give $7.5 million back. Almost sounds worth it.

Strange they let Senter out really with a similar case getting told no chance. Wonder what Testa's lawyer is doing about his situation.

Seem strange that was sentenced with the same crimes,Senter is out and Testa not.

The only reasonable explanation is Testa was more involved in fuckery while locked up whereas Senters record is said to be clean while inside. If Testa is the same there is a real fucked up standard for parole given they were sentenced together for the same crimes. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I doubt that killed someone in prison or sell dope but who know.

[furiofromnaples]

Do you think would turn back to the Luke's?

[Shellackhead]

Do you think would turn back to the Luke's?

He shouldnt

[Little_Al1991]

So Chris is coming home to millions it seems.
Senter must have had some extraordinary reason to gain his release
possible medical issues

[johnny_scootch]

Do you think would turn back to the Luke's?

He shouldnt

You don't really get a choice, he's a member and nothing is going to change that.

[Little_Al1991]

Do you think would turn back to the Luke's?

He shouldnt

You don't really get a choice, he's a member and nothing is going to change that.

If Senter decides to walk away, what can they really do? They would not kill him it seems.