The self-subscribed “lottery lawyer” who stole $107 million in prize money from jackpot winners and used the bounty on luxury vacations, yachts and a Porsche was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the mobbed-up scheme.
Jason Kurland, 49, was convicted by a jury last year of tricking lucky lottery-winning clients into handing over their money for investments but instead putting the cash into risky businesses he secretly co-owned and into shady investments pushed by reputed Genovese crime family soldier Christopher Chierchio.
“They were lucky winners, but when they met Mr. Kurland, they ended up to be losers,” Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis said before handing down the hefty sentence.
Garaufis said Kurland’s goal was to “cash in on the success of his clients.”
Kurland — who was a partner at a Long Island law firm earning roughly $500,000 annually — targeted jackpot-winning clients starting in 2018, clinching a $1.5 billion Mega Millions winner, a $245 million Powerball winner and a $150 million jackpot winner.
The newly wealthy clients paid Kurland hundreds of thousands to advise them on how to invest their earnings safely.
“Mr. Kurland had direct access to the money and like a burglar, he used the access he had to pocket the money for himself and his business partners,” the judge said.
The Dix Hills lawyer received kickbacks for steering the money into businesses he co-owned with Francis Smookler and Frangesco Russo, all while hiding from his clients his links to the business investments.
“This abuse of trust would be unfathomable in any profession, but it is grotesque and unfathomable for a lawyer,” Garaufis said.
A remorseful Kurland broke down in tears when reading a statement to the judge saying he was “ashamed” and “embarrassed” and acknowledging that he did “stupid” and “misguided” things.
“I failed so many, your honor … my clients, my family,” Kurland said, pleading for leniency as he is the father of young children.
Kurland’s family wept after the judge handed down the lengthy sentence — which his lawyer, Telemachus Kasulis, vowed to appeal.
Kurland, Smookler and Russo invested winners’ money in high-risk deals that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme, losing $40 million in just over a year, so in April 2020 they turned to Chierchio, 54 — who promised to help them win all the money back with investments into personal protective equipment pandemic deals.
But barely any of the funds actually went toward PPE deals and instead, Chierchio and the trio skimmed millions off the top, prosecutors argued at trial.
Kurland then stole $19.5 million from one client’s accounts for the Chierchio deal.
The defendants used the pilfered money to live large, taking expensive vacations and jaunts on private jets and buying two yachts and a Porsche, prosecutors said.
One of the winners invested $5 million not knowing that Kurland was a co-owner of the business. And the plotting lawyer convinced another client to purchase his business for $2 million not knowing it was owned by him.
In total, Kurland, Smookler and Russo defrauded the winners out of roughly $107 million.
Chierchio, Russo and Smookler all took guilty pleas in the case. Chierchio was sentenced to five years behind bars on Wednesday. Russo and Smookler are awaiting sentencing.
“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,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
Kurland is due to surrender on Oct. 18.
