5:56 PM, October 12, 2010

A downtown property manager was hauled off to serve at least five years prison today for embezzling more than $2 million -- thefts that fed his compulsion to buy tens of thousands of dollars a month in lottery tickets.

Richard Bassik was buying between $20,000 and $25,000 in tickets a month from the tri-state area in the delusional hope of winning bit and paying back what he'd stolen, said his lawyer.

Bassik admittedly stole from 13 properties he managed through his company, Downtown Properties -- buildings ranging from high-end co-ops and condos to a building owned by a non-profit, Manhattan prosecutors said. DA Cyrus Vance had noted the thefts "bankrolled a lavish lifestyle."

In addition to lottery tickets, Bassik spent the money on fine jewelry, stays at the Ritz Carlton and Caribbean vacations for his girlfriend, and bailed out a step-daughter who needed to pay back $400,000 in restitution in an unrelated criminal case in Suffolk County, prosecutors said.

Bassik was managing properties despite getting convicted in the 1976 kidnapping of a 6-year-old boy, for whom he'd demanded a $100,000 ransom.

"He is extremely remorseful," said his lawyer, Michael Soshnick.

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