once celebrated young MA mayor Jasiel Correia, elected at age 23, will serve 6 yrs in prison
A federal appeals court has upheld the extortion and fraud convictions of a once-celebrated young Massachusetts mayor who was found guilty of extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from marijuana businesses.
In a ruling published on Monday, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a series of challenges to former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Corriea's 2021 trial, concluding that the 30-year-old was “fairly tried and lawfully convicted by an impartial jury.”
Correia, once a rising Democratic star after being elected at just 23 years old, was found guilty by jurors in Boston federal court of defrauding investors in his smartphone app and soliciting bribes from marijuana vendors who wanted to operate in the struggling mill city.
The judge later tossed several wire fraud and false tax returns convictions that he said prosecutors failed to prove. Corriea remains convicted of multiple counts of fraud, extortion conspiracy and extortion. He reported to prison in April to begin serving his six-year prison sentence
https://news.yahoo.com/ex-mayor-elected-age-23-154028351.html.
---------------
The judge noted "the swiftness of the defendant's rise was matched by the swiftness of his fall," as Correia was the city's youngest mayor.
A young man full of ambition but with no political experience, Correia captured the public’s attention like few before him, swept into public office and soared to the sixth floor of Government Center in record time — and in record time, Fall River voters booted him from the mayor’s office with a federal corruption scandal nipping at his heels. All that, in a little more than half a decade.
In May 2021, the jury convicted Correia of 21 counts of defrauding investors in the SnoOwl app before he was elected mayor, tax fraud related to SnoOwl, and political corruption by extorting marijuana businessmen during his two terms as mayor from 2016 to 2020.
https://www.heraldnews.com/story/news/courts/2022/11/29/ex-fall-river-mayor-jasiel-correia-fraud-corruption-appeal-denied-1st-circuit-court/69684797007/
= new reply since forum marked as read
