13 years in prison for man who stole from his own clients
By Kate Northrop
New York-based attorney and self-proclaimed "Lottery Lawyer" Jason "Jay" Kurland, 49, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after stealing millions of dollars from the dozens of significant lottery jackpot winners he advised.
After trial began in July 2022, in which he was accused of multiple counts of fraud and money laundering, Kurland has been handed a 13-year prison sentence for his role in carrying out schemes to defraud major lottery winners of over $100 million.
"The trial of Jason Kurland proved that Kurland violated his solemn duties as a lawyer and as an officer of the Court by stealing and misappropriating more than $100 million from his clients, who were some of the largest lottery winners in U.S. history," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. "Just before trial, Christopher Chierchio pled guilty to assisting Kurland in this fraud, while personally pocketing more than $25 million of the lottery winners' money. Now, the sentences imposed by Judge Garaufis show that for these defendants who made the lottery winners their victims, their luck has run out, and this Office will prosecute anyone who chooses to engage in fraud — no matter their title or degree."
Co-conspirator Christopher Chierchio, 54, a big-name player in a Genovese crime family and who played a major role in carrying out the schemes, was also sentenced to five years in prison.
These schemes were made possible by the way Kurland marketed himself as the ultimate legal authority on major lottery wins, which attracted many famous lottery winners of huge multi-state game jackpots, such as the anonymous South Carolina winner of the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot in 2016.
He then guided his clients to invest in risky businesses that he owned alongside his other co-conspirators, unbeknownst to the lottery winners. As a result, he and his partners, including Francis Smookler and Frangesco Russo, would receive kickbacks from the investments that would go on to fund their own lavish yachts, high-end cars, and other luxuries.
Text messages and intercepted phone calls revealed the arrogant nature of their brazen plotting to defraud their victims. From the moment Kurland secured his first client, he texted Russo, "Have to figure out how to have this get to us," referring to his ploy to direct the lottery winner's money to their own businesses.
After a pre-investment meeting with a victim, Kurland texted Smookler and Russo, "haven't talked about the investment yet, but I could not have teed it up better[.]"
Shortly after, a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office said, that same victim invested $5 million in one of their businesses without any idea that it was owned by Kurland and his co-conspirators.
Kurland even convinced another lottery winner to unknowingly purchase his entire business for $2 million.
"Like looking at my bank statement today. Not gonna lie," he bragged in a text message to Smookler after the transaction.
He and his co-conspirators also directly funneled lottery winners' money into high-risk deals with the goal of benefiting from the investments. However, the ventures were unsuccessful and resulted in the loss of over $40 million in lottery winner's investment capital in less than a year.
"let me know if I'm keeping the Panamera [Porsche], or have to go back to my Lexus," Kurland had texted Smookler in the midst of the scheme.
To recoup their losses, the co-defendants invested in personal protective equipment (PPE) at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and attempted to sell it to the state of California. Chierchio took the lead and urged Kurland to "go deep with me here," promising that Kurland could "make all [his] losses back." Feeling pressured to pour more money into the deal, Kurland then stole $19.5 million directly out of a lottery winner's bank account, which he had direct control over. That money was never seen again, and it was counted toward the total losses of over $100 million across all victims.
The $19.5 million he plucked from a winner's bank account belonged to the famous South Carolina winner of the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot, who testified against Kurland while maintaining her anonymity.
For a full breakdown of Kurland's story, including his rise as a public figure to the events leading up to his downfall, you can watch Lottery Post's video on YouTube.
In addition to their prison sentences, Kurland and Chierchio were each sentenced to three years of supervised release. Kurland was ordered to pay $64.6 million in forfeiture. His restitution will be determined by the Court within three months of his sentencing, a statement reads. Chierchio was ordered to pay $26.55 million in forfeiture and $30.55 million in restitution.
* l seriously doubt Jason will serve the full bit. Eddie Tipton checked out of prison in under 5. I think some of these decisions are based on " well no one died, and these millionaires have a lot of money left over." Anyways...
I was hoping he would get the maximum of 25 years.
This is at least a hundred million that he stole.
That's Grand Larceny that.
hope he likes bubba cell mate if at all he does go to prison
I still can't understand how these people made him take so much of the money without them knowing,like what could possibly convince you to make somebody else control your entire bank accounts
And- I had him in my contact list if ever I won, I would uses his services. Go figure!
Greed = Karma!
Jail is a nice place for Jace.
Sad that he will do five or six of them.
Be your own investor. Such nonsense needing a team of ppl how to save your own money.
He needed to be taken down. Serves him right.
Gossip kills
He'll probably serve half that. Ridiculous sentence. He should serve 25 to life for the crimes he did.
Exactly
Avoiding scams and freeloaders is precisely the reason lottery winners hire guys like this...how awful.
l never trusted him the first time l saw him just instinct he looked like Mickey mouse 🐀🐁 🐭. Just like l felt when l first saw Bill Cosby he looked like a Frog 🐸 always good to follow your instincts ask for his last Name like Kunland or Conland lol 😍😆
He probably has a storage locker filled with cash when he gets out of jail.
Kurland wont do all 13 years of his sentence and what ever time he actually does do will be spent at a minimum security Federal Detention Center for white collar criminals. (aka "Club Fed") Restitution will be a joke. He doesn't have that kind of money and wont ever have millions again.
And where's the court appointed trustee trying to clawback some of the money that belonged to the people that were scammed? The article makes no mention of anything like that. It does mention forfeiture of 64 million so that must be money Kurland had in his bank accounts when he was first arrested.
As for the comment above that he should have been sentenced to 25 years to life, although I too think that should have been the case, Federal Sentencing Guidelines that the judge in the case had to follow don't allow for that much time in prison. The punishment has to fit the crime and soft on crime liberal judges dont help much either.... G5
This guy is beyond greedy. It's really difficult to fathom. In the federal system he must do 85% of his time. Unless he gets into a special program, graduates, and earn additional time off his sentence. But he's going to be down for a number of years rightfully so.
Because of the length of his sentence (13 years) he won't be in a Club Fed initially. He'll start in a medium facility with is sort of relaxed but can be dangerous. He can earn his way down to a low or Club Fed down the line after a few years in.
He won't luck out like Eddie Tipton did.
I looked it up and his law license was administratively revoked in NJ. No date was provided. Member since 2001. Not sure what other state bars he might have but I am assuming the same outcome.
I tried checking NY but I need his license # to search.
He should have only gotten probation at most. He only stole from those who cheated the games so it was basically a case of thieves taking from thieves.
Hopefully the state Supreme Court is starting the process to permanently disbar him.
Kurland was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Supervised release is different than probation or parole as it's served after a defendant is released from prison and is supervised by a probation officer. If he violates the terms/conditions of his supervised release he can be sent back to prison to serve the remaining time of his supervised release.
What will his quality of life be like after he's released? Because he wont have much money, it wont be very good and certainly not what it was like while he was practicing law as an attorney. He's been disbarred and will never practice law again. Regarding the types of jobs available to him, he wont want them as they'll be minimum wage kinds of jobs. Where will he live? Unless he has a relative willing to take him in, he'll probably have to live in what amounts to a rundown motel room.
He'll likely not pay any of the restitution money he was ordered to pay. (because he'll be broke) But should he ever come into some money, the government will seize it and give it to his victims.
After he gets out of prison, his quality of life will be up that famous creek everybody talks about. G5
I look forward to his American Greed story.
A great, free education provided by the LP folks...Thank you...Best of luck to each and everyone of us, should we win a major jackpot and have to choose a legal scholar to be represented by.
To crime, punishment, and the interpretation thereof.
Soundz like the Court Judgez don't want any partz of the Genovese crime family...Should'nt have been too hard to follow the stolen money..