Posted on 08/18/2020 9:26:40 PM PDT by NRx
A Long Island attorney who specializes in representing people who won major lottery jackpots was arrested by the FBI Tuesday, along with a soldier in the Genovese organized crime family, on charges of ripping off the winners of three lotteries for a total of $107 million, federal prosecutors said.
The three alleged victims, who were not named by prosecutors, were described as the winners of a $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot; a $245 million Powerball jackpot, and a $150 million jackpot, officials said.
Jason Kurland, 45, of Dix Hills, who bills himself as “The Lottery Lawyer,” was charged in federal court in Brooklyn, along with Christopher Chierchio, 52, of Staten Island, with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. Kurland was charged additionally with honest services wire fraud.
Chierchio was identified as a mob soldier in court papers by Eastern District prosecutors.
Two other people who officials said handled money that was siphoned off from the victims of the scheme were also charged: Frangesco Russo, 38, of Roslyn, and Francis Smookler, 45, of Oyster Bay.
Russo and Smookler were additionally charged in a separate scheme with extortionate extension and collection of credit for “threatening to kill an individual and his family” for not repaying $250,000 they had lent him, officials said.
On his personal website, Kurland said that the $1.5 billion jackpot was in South Carolina, and a $245.6 million jackpot was won in New York.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Christopher Chierchio, 52, of Staten Island
A soldier in the Genovese Crime Family.
I don’t know him but Staten Island is a big place.
And there is no such thing as The Mafia.
It’s an FBI invention to persecute Italian Americans.
FBI - Forever Bothering Italians.
People watch too many gangster movies.
I wonder if this guy was my grandmother’s lawyer. She won the lottery years ago but then later got pancreatic cancer and while she was suffering from that the weasel did stuff behind her back.
$107 million? They got off cheap. Most of the Contingency Fee Shysters charge three or four times times that.
No Mafia? My uncle would be surprised by that, lol.
3 of mine would :)
I would!
But I still stand by my statement!!
It’s still regarded as a high end law firm. They have already taken their renegade lawyer’s profile off their website.
Those numbers are the lottery advertising. They always promote the pre tax money you would get if you took a 30 year annuity, which is a rip off. The true value of the lottery is the pre-tax value of the money if you take it all upfront. That is of course much less, but even conservatively invested you would do much better than the lottery’s annuity..
I noticed that too. But criminal fraud and legal malpractice can ding a firm’s reputation.
yeah my grandfather would ve surprised as well
i’m italian, among others
If it wasn’t the government they would go after them for false advertising.
+1
Are they sure the Governor is not involved in this?
Heard about this outfit for years. Why haven’t other “honest” lawyers said something about him to law enforcement? Maybe they did and it’s just taken a long time, but it doesn’t seem like it!
“And there is no such thing as The Mafia.”
Having lived in Sicily and had good relationships with many locals...I can attest to the fact that you are entirely correct.
;~]
Then you know...the Sicilian mafia is horrifyingly ruthless.
I read a few weeks ago about a guy whose sister “dishonored” him somehow, so he slashed her open, dragged her bleeding body through the streets and dropped her at the boyfriend’s door.
ms13 has nothing on the Sicilian Mafia
A lot of Sicilians brought here the past 20 years and have done well.
After 9/11, american mafia started rebuilding because feds were busy with terrorism
My uncle is intimately familiar with the Cosa Nostra (and their big setback) and will leave it at that. My mother’s side (Irish) has some relatives that just did some sports books and stuff that should be legal anyway (in a free society). Heat got bad in Jersey and they moved west. I have on both sides.
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