Out with several friends over the weekend, we got to talking about the big Mega Millions jackpot that was just hit by someone in Maine. One of my friends mentioned a "lottery lawyer" who stole like a hundred million from his clients. I'd never heard of that and I had to wonder why? Who was the lawyer and why wasn't it bigger news?
We can’t say how or why you missed this story; it was pretty well reported, especially when Jason Kurland, the 48-year-old self-proclaimed “lottery lawyer,” was convicted last July.
It’s certainly a cautionary tale, especially when these vast sums of money are involved. And thanks to her anonymous testimony in Kurland’s trial, it also reveals details about one of the largest lottery winners of all time to which we'd ordinarily never be privy.
The most complete coverage we found is at LotteryPost.com, which you wouldn't see unless you looked. Many of the juiciest details herein come from two stories and a video that they produced.
The Mega Millions ticket in question was for $1.54 billion, which was hit on October 19, 2018, by a single ticket holder in South Carolina, which allows lottery winners to remain anonymous and puts a six-month deadline on coming forward to claim the jackpot. This winner waited almost five months to appear, but finally stepped forward to claim the $878 million lump sum; after federal and state withholding taxes, she netted a little less than $500 million.
She turned out to be a woman in her late 50s with grown children and celebrating her 36th anniversary with her lawyer husband.
In court testimony, the winner, dubbed “Beth Smith” to protect her anonymity, said that on matching the winning numbers to all six numbers on her ticket that morning in October, she felt an intense mix of "astonishment, disbelief, joy, and anxiety."
First, she determined to dispel her disbelief by driving past the KC Mart in Simpsonville, SC, where she bought the ticket. After seeing the media circus there, including helicopters and a huge crowd, she knew it was for real and she secured the ticket in a safety-deposit box, while she and her husband "Steve" tried to figure out their next steps.
Coincidentally, they happened to see Jason Kurland on a morning talk show discussing the jackpot. The Smiths checked him out and were impressed with his credentials.
Kurland worked for a reputable law firm on Long Island, New York, and advertised himself as a knowledgeable and trusted adviser to big lottery winners from coast to coast. He had, in fact, represented a number of big winners, including tickets for $121.6 million (Powerball, Delaware), $254.2 million (Powerball, Connecticut), and $336.4 million (Powerball, Rhode Island). But Beth Smith would be his biggest winning client by a long shot.
Kurland had also turned himself into a lottery billboard, appearing at press conferences and doing feature interviews, providing advice to lottery hopefuls every time a multi-state jackpot hit the stratosphere. His most frequent advice? Don't go it alone! Find yourself a credible, reliable, and honorable proxy to help you avoid all the pitfalls. Good counsel. It turned out, though, he anything but.
Steve Smith called Kurland from a burner phone and arranged to meet -- where else? -- in Las Vegas without revealing who he or his wife were. Here in Vegas, they agreed to terms, with Kurland taking a $200,000 fee for becoming the Smiths’ intermediary with the South Carolina Education Lottery.
Kurland negotiated all the steps that the Smiths would take to claim their prize. According to LotteryPost, “First, the couple met Kurland in Columbia, South Carolina, where a South Carolina Lottery security team picked them up and escorted them to an underground garage at the city's lottery office. Security cameras were disabled and windows were covered.”
The Smiths presented their $1.5 billion winning ticket and Kurland arranged the financial details, then met the media to reveal what he could about the winners. He said that their wish was to donate a sizable percentage of their windfall to charity. He didn’t mention that the Smiths were “adamant,” as Beth told the court, that they wanted the money to be invested “very conservatively” as a legacy for the many generations of Smiths to come.
Again according to LotteryPost, “Kurland opened an account at Bank Leumi USA, a New York-based bank now known as Valley Bank, which would be distributed to four other U.S.-based banks. In-house money managers were to supervise the investments.”
Here’s where it all started to go south. In order, ostensibly, to protect the Smiths’ identity, Kurland set up the bank accounts in his own name. Only he had access to the balance information, bank statements, and the money itself. They were, essentially, his own accounts. Furthermore, he was paid $50,000 a month, $600,000 a year, to manage the money. But as is often the case for people like Kurland, it wasn’t nearly enough.
Tune in tomorrow for Part 2 of the Jason Kurland Scam.
