FALL RIVER In the first week of the Jasiel Correia trial, jurors heard from 20 witnesses, so far focused solely on the charges related to his former app company SnoOwl.
Starting Monday, the government will begin presenting its case against Correia on the government corruption charges that’s the part related to his alleged shakedown of marijuana vendors looking to do business in Fall River.
But in the testimony so far much of it very technical and related to accounting methods and financial records there have been a number of head-scratching moments for those of us watching from home (and there are many of us each day this week, anywhere from 250 to 300 people were logged in to view the trial remotely).
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Ex-Mayor Used Investor Cash For Shoes, Jewelry, Jury Told
Law360 (April 29, 2021, 5:35 PM EDT) A former Massachusetts mayor showered his then-girlfriend with expensive trips and gifts, including a $700 pair of Christian Louboutin heels and a $1,000 Tiffany necklace, she told a Boston jury Thursday, and prosecutors claim he used investors money for the pricey items.
Jasiel Correia, 29, is on trial facing two dozen federal charges including claims he fleeced investors in his app, SnoOwl, and spent over $230,000 on personal trips and gifts for his girlfriend. The former Fall River mayor s partner at the time, Natalie Cleveland, testified that she and the former mayor met when she was just 18 and for more.
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.