Former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia Found Guilty Of Tax Fraud And Extortion
In this Friday, Sept. 6, 2019 file photo Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia, left, speaks beside his attorney Kevin Reddington outside the federal courthouse, in Boston, after his appearance on bribery, extortion and fraud charges.
Philip Marcelo / AP
May 14, 2021
Former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia on Friday was found guilty of 21 counts of extortion and tax fraud by a jury in U.S. District Court in Boston.
The decision came after more than four days of deliberations in the case after jurors heard from 36 witnesses in a nine-day trial at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse located on the Boston waterfront.
BOSTON Jasiel Correia II was “a mayor of old school corruption” who was happy to find a new illegal revenue stream shaking down marijuana vendors when the money he took from investors in his SnoOwl app company dried up, according to federal prosecutors closing arguments on Monday.
Not so, argued defense attorney Kevin Reddington, who said his client was dealing with savvy businessmen who invested in the company he started fresh out of college, and that the federal government brought in a “conga line” of questionable witnesses who had much to gain as co-conspirators who were granted immunity or plea deals.
BOSTON Within a short time of receiving several hundred thousand dollars from investors for his start-up app company SnoOwl, Jasiel Correia II spent more than half the money on travel, entertainment, luxury items and paying off personal debt.
Correia then attempted to hide those personal expenditures as business expenditures on his tax returns. He also hid from the IRS the fact that SnoOwl, a partnership, even existed, according to testimony Friday.
That was the gist of the government’s case on Friday against the former Fall River mayor, with the majority of the day’s testimony from IRS criminal investigator Sandi Lemanski, of the agency’s public corruption unit. Lemanski testified that over the course of three years, investors gave Correia a total of $358,190, but he wasted little time spending the money on personal use.
Corruption trial of Jasiel Correia, former mayor of Fall River elected at 23, begins masslive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from masslive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.