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Shownotes Transcript
This podcast is supported by FX's English Teacher, a new comedy from executive producers of What We Do in the Shadows and Baskets. English Teacher follows Evan, a teacher in Austin, Texas, who learns if it's really possible to be your full self at your job, while often finding himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school. FX's English Teacher premieres September 2nd on FX. Stream on Hulu.
This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Please welcome, from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, State Senator Diane Wilkerson, the highest elected African American official of Massachusetts. My fellow Democrats,
I stand here today as a proud resident of Massachusetts, ready to welcome those of you here and those watching in your home to our home in the great city of Austin.
Massachusetts Democrats are ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with all hard-working men and women to take our country back. Diane Wilkerson was a trailblazer. She achieved too many firsts to list, smashing glass ceilings for women and marginalized groups as she scaled from one prestigious position to the next.
Most notably, in 1992, Diane became the first black woman to be elected to a Massachusetts state senate seat where she represented the 2nd Suffolk District for the next 15 years. Many in Boston felt Diane Wilkerson was destined to become the city's first black mayor.
Diane Wilkerson would prove all of those people wrong. The downfall started in the spring of 2007 during her eighth Senate term. During an unrelated corruption probe, a confidential informant named Ron Wilburn made a passing comment that Senator Wilkerson could be bought.
The FBI asked Wilburn to elaborate. He assumed it was common knowledge. Senator Diane Wilkerson was more than willing to accept cash payments from her constituents in exchange for favors. For example, Wilburn claimed he'd seen a business partner pay Wilkerson twice for assistance in relocating a nightclub in Roxbury. The FBI set up a sting.
Ron Wilburn was a business partner in the development of Deja Vu, a new restaurant in Senator Wilkerson's district that needed a liquor license. In Massachusetts, there were two options for obtaining one. The prohibitive traditional route was to submit an application, have a public hearing, pay up to $300,000, and hope to be approved by the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission.
Or, for an annual fee of $2,900, Deja Vu could obtain a non-transferable license issued directly by the City of Boston's licensing board. But, unfortunately, the group's application for that license had already been denied. But maybe there was another way.
The FBI instructed Ron Wilburn to set up a meeting with Senator Diane Wilkerson. During that initial meeting, he promised to "take care of her if she could help obtain a liquor license for the restaurant." Wilkerson promised to "kick some tires on her end to see what she could do." Wilburn's first payment to Wilkerson was on June 5, 2007. He handed her $500 cash. The exchange was recorded on video by a hidden camera Wilburn carried.
A few weeks later, Senator Wilkerson reported back to Wilburn that she had been burning up the phones. She was calling the mayor, the city council. She was optimistic that they could get something done. The next day, Ron Wilburn met Diane Wilkerson at an upscale restaurant in Beacon Hill and handed her another $1,000. Again, this meeting was captured on tape. The resulting stills of Senator Wilkerson reaching up her blouse and stuffing the cash into her bra would become infamous at a later date.
But before then, Senator Wilkerson got to work. She made more phone calls to the ABCC and the BLB. She made it known that she needed a liquor license and she would not take no for an answer. Senator Wilkerson even intentionally delayed legislation in the Senate that would result in pay increases for the licensing board employees. Wilkerson also involved a respected but infamously combative Boston city councilor named Chuck Turner.
Wilkerson wanted Turner to call a public hearing to ask why had so few liquor licenses been issued to the minority community. Senator Wilkerson set up a meeting between Counselor Turner and the cooperating witness, Ron Wilburn. Again, all caught on tape.
Diane was telling me, yeah, and I told her I'd talk to you and I was going to stop by and show my gratitude. And then, you know, after the hearing, I want to show my gratitude again, you know. So you take the wife to dinner and have some fun. And what I'll do, I'm going to call her on Monday because I have to resubmit the license.
You can't hear it, but there's a moment in that video where Ron Wilburn and Chuck Turner shake hands, and if you slow down playback just enough, we can see Wilburn palming five $100 bills and slipping them to the counselor. Thanks for all the support. Ultimately, after a few more payments, Diane Wilkerson took it upon herself to introduce legislation in the state Senate that would create 40 additional non-transferable liquor licenses in Boston. Diane Wilkerson would control four,
Having completed the FBI's bidding, Ron Wilburn informed Diane Wilkerson he had lost his financial backing and pulled out of the deal. But he introduced the senator to someone else who was interested. It was an undercover federal agent posing as an out-of-state businessman. And this out-of-state businessman was also interested in any real estate development opportunities that may arise.
Senator Wilkerson knew a place, Parcel 8, an abandoned, state-owned lot next to a hardware store that was ripe for redevelopment. Wilkerson posed the idea of introducing legislation that would directly designate the property to the interested private party to avoid the public bidding process. It was a deal.
The undercover agent paid Wilkerson $5,000 up front, and everything was going according to plan. Until September 16, 2008, Senator Diane Wilkerson lost the primary election. If she were not re-elected, their schemes would be ruined, and they had already paid her $13,000. Wilkerson was confident that she could win a write-in campaign, but it would require more money. How much? The FBI asked. Another $10,000, Wilkerson said.
Massachusetts State Senator Diane Wilkerson was arrested on October 28, 2008 after an 18-month investigation. The 53-year-old was charged with attempted extortion under the color of official right and theft of honest services.
When taken into custody, Diane had $6,000 cash on her person. Her house was filled with unopened boxes from the Home Shopping Network and casino receipts. We're here today to announce the team of federal agents arrested State Senator Diane Wilkinson this morning. The federal public corruption charges stemming from her acceptance of over $20,000 in cash payments.
Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner was also arrested at his office in City Hall and charged with accepting a $1,000 bribe. Both Wilkerson and Turner pleaded not guilty.
In fact, Senator Wilkerson called the arrest an "all-out character assassination." She released a lengthy statement calling the charges brought by U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan politically motivated: "In one fell swoop and before an indictment had been returned, he sought to imperil my re-election campaign and has set much of the state's Democratic leadership back on its heels. He brought this issue forward at this time knowing full well that I would never have an opportunity to have my day in court.
prior to November 4th. U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said the timing of the charges in relation to the election was purely coincidental, not that it mattered. The Massachusetts State Senate had no desire to wait for the results. Usually the Senate waits until there's a conviction or a felony conviction before removing a senator from committees. We acted today before that happened. And we acted because of a pattern of behavior.
The Senate passed a unanimous resolution asking Diane Wilkerson to resign, effective immediately. She was not a first-time offender, they noted. There had been a pattern of problematic behavior. In addition to a long history of campaign finance violations, back in 1997, Wilkerson had pleaded guilty to failure to file tax returns. She was sentenced to probation, which she violated, and was sent to live in a halfway house while in office.
Also in 2005, she had been accused of perjury at an appeal hearing related to her nephew's manslaughter conviction. Nevertheless, Diane Wilkerson was routinely re-elected. Either her constituents didn't believe the news, didn't care, or believed the alternative was worse. But for her fellow senators, Wilkerson's behavior could no longer be ignored.
Despite earlier saying she would respect whatever decision the Senate made, Diane Wilkerson declined to resign. She released a statement saying she would continue the write-in campaign to be re-elected. Ultimately, Massachusetts' first black governor, Deval Patrick, convinced Diane that it was not a good idea. Diane Wilkerson resigned on November 18, 2008.
Chuck Turner, on the other hand, kept his city council seat. Even one reelection in 2009 while awaiting trial, Turner maintained his innocence. He said he didn't even remember meeting Ron Wilburn. I said to them, I don't remember him giving me any money because the reality is, I don't remember him giving me any money. The police, I mean the press, was relentless. It was rushing!
so fast to get dressed to avoid more harassment by the police, by the press, that apparently from what they say, I didn't zip up my pants. On October 29, 2010, a federal jury found Chuck Turner guilty of attempted extortion and providing false statements to the FBI.
During the trial, according to prosecutors, Turner allegedly took the stand in his own defense and continued to lie. I believe each and every public official accused of corruption has a responsibility to be a person of principle and get off that stand and face the prosecuting jury and speak the truth. Chuck Turner blamed a government conspiracy designed to, quote, discredit elected officials of African-American descent.
This is U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz. Mr. Turner's claims were simply untrue and outrageous. I particularly took great personal offense to Mr. Turner's representations that he should be compared to some of this nation's greatest civil rights heroes, such as Rosa Parks. Mr. Turner is no Rosa Parks. He's a convicted felon who took a bribe and then compounded that offense by lying about it repeatedly.
U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock sentenced 70-year-old Chuck Turner to 28 months in federal prison, and the Boston City Council voted to expel him from office, a first in the body's 100-year history. A Massachusetts Supreme Court later ruled that the council overstepped its authority in doing so, qualifying the former counselor for two years of back pay. Chuck Turner died in 2019.
As for the state senator... I will accept my punishment, but it doesn't change the fact that I knew from the beginning of the tactics utilized against Chuck Turner and I by local and federal law enforcement purportedly to weed out corruption.
Diane Wilkerson eventually changed her plea to guilty, even though she claims to have done nothing wrong. She later told Boston Magazine that she was working as a consultant for those businesses, which was legal and never hid the money. She says she was "set up" by the FBI. Wilkerson also told the magazine that the only reason she accepted a plea was because a predominantly white jury would have convicted her regardless, which would have led to a longer sentence.
So on June 3rd, 2010, Diane Wilkerson pleaded guilty to eight counts of attempted extortion and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. She was released in September 2013. Diane returned to Boston and kept a low profile for years after, except that one time in February 2014 when she made a public appearance fresh out of prison to accept an award from the mayor of Boston for being one of the, quote, women of color changing our world.
By all accounts, since then, Diane Wilkerson has been doing good things behind the scenes like organizing the Black Boston COVID-19 Coalition during the pandemic,
But it felt inevitable that she would try to recapture those glory days. A former state senator who served more than two years in federal prison for bribery may want her old job back. In 2022, Diane Wilkerson announced that she would be campaigning for her old seat, which was vacated by the woman who replaced her all those years ago, Sonia Ching-Diaz, the first Hispanic woman elected to the Massachusetts Senate.
Cheng Diaz decided to run for governor in 2022, but she lost, as did Diane Wilkerson, who didn't make it past the primary that year. Instead, she decided to do what every other self-serving grifter has done in the past decade. She started a podcast. And we are live. Good morning, everyone. It's 11 o'clock and it is Wednesday. So you know what that means. It's Wolf Women Wednesday. Senator Diane Wilkerson here with you again.
Make way for change, Massachusetts. Make way for the future. Make way for another historic failure of public service, courtesy of the ones you once held dear. A charismatic young leader lifts the spirits of a struggling city, only to let it back down again on this episode of Swindled.
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Fall River has a tragic history of fire. Fire that destroyed many of its greatest mills, homes, and churches. But the people of Fall River have always shown a spirit of survival and renewal. By the time the 21st century arrived, Fall River, Massachusetts had seen better days.
The once prosperous Spindle City no longer bustled with cotton mills and textile factories. Instead, the streets were filled with potholes and violence. Addicts stumbled through the dark and slept on the waterfront benches.
These are familiar sights for any formerly industrial American city. But what keeps Fall River unique is its population. Of the 90,000 people who live there, almost half have Portuguese ancestry. Their families immigrated to the area in the 1880s looking for opportunity, and they stayed and fostered a culture. Yet in over 100 years, no one of Portuguese descent had governed the city. But that was about to change.
Jaisal F. Correa II says there's a video of his grandma talking to him shortly after his birth in December 1991. He was the first Correa born in the United States. Baby Jaisal's grandma tells him he could be president someday.
Jaisal must have taken that statement to heart because he started padding his resume as soon as he could walk. When he was 13 years old, Jaisal Correa addressed local officials at an anti-drug organization called the Bold Coalition about his concerns with youth substance abuse.
By age 15, Jezo Correa was the chairman of the Bold Coalition.
Aguiar said the teenager monitored budgets, managed staffing, and served on the boards of related organizations. And his community involvement didn't end there. The Herald News also reported that Jaisal was leading his neighborhood community organization, quote, two years before he could even drive a car.
his classmates were certainly impressed. In high school, Jaisal Correa served as the student body president while playing on the varsity tennis team and focusing on his studies enough to graduate fifth in his class. While you were smoking pot in your bedroom and downloading porn on LimeWire, Jaisal Correa II was winning Fall River's 2009 Youth of the Year award. How does that make you feel?
Yeah, well, prepare to feel even worse. Because a year later, at 18 years old, Jaisal Correa would be named the Fall River Area's Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2010, while attending Providence College as a freshman, Jaisal and his roommate, Alec Mendez, created an app for Facebook called Find It Networks. The app basically helped local businesses advertise to college students. It was like Yelp, which launched six years earlier, but even worse.
That's not to say it wasn't a success because, according to Jaisal, it was. Especially in Fall River, where the website was unveiled. FindIt Networks was so successful, in fact, that Jaisal and Alec ultimately sold it to an investment group out of Cambridge, who then eventually sold the technology to Facebook. Details are sparse because of an NDA. But by any measurement, for Jaisal Correa II, it was a significant payday.
and he used some of that windfall as seed capital for his next ventures, most notably 104 Business Academy, an abandoned mill converted into a business incubator that offered office space, utilities, and a ping-pong table to startup companies and artists, a concept that would have been completely unthinkable in Fall River in years past. 104 Business Academy, with office space starting at $99 a month.
At 1-0-4 Business Academy, Jaisal and friends would incubate their next idea. It was called Snow Owl, an iPhone app. Similar to Find It Networks in the sense that its goal was to connect consumers and businesses about local offerings and events. But Snow Owl was more of a live feed of what was happening around you, like Facebook or Twitter. But instead of tweets, posts on Snow Owl were called hoots.
Actually, Snow Owl was more like a hybrid of Yelp, Facebook, and Twitter. The next Google is how Correa described it on LinkedIn. Your personal lifestyle operating system is the slogan Jaisal and his team settled on. Hi, I'm Jaisal. I'm the CEO of Snow Owl. And I created Snow Owl because there really needed to be a way to discover businesses around you in real time. And I want to introduce you to the team that's putting this together and making it a reality.
We've got Josh, our Vice President of Engineering. We've got Nick, our CTO over there with the headphones on, so he can't hear us. We've got Junior, our UI expert. We've got Chris right there, our Vice President of Marketing. And we've got Nick, the other Nick, our COO.
Jaisal Correa's main job as CEO of Snow Owl was to obtain funding from investors. It was an easy sell. Jaisal pointed to his previous success with Findit. In fact, Jaisal told investors that he wouldn't even be taking a salary until Snow Owl was profitable. They just needed money for server space and developer costs, chip in a few bucks in exchange for equity. When Snow Owl takes off or gets acquired, everyone gets paid.
Jaisal Kurea pitched the investment opportunity to local businessmen and friends of his parents and the parents of his friends. In the span of a few years, Jaisal collected approximately $360,000 from seven investors.
Snowell became his full-time job. In addition to being a full-time grad student, Jasel balanced his CEO duties with his resident assistant duties at the dorm and spent time with his new long-distance girlfriend, Natalie Cleveland, whom he met in Washington, D.C., when they were both interning for Senator John Kerry during the summer of 2012.
In April 2013, Jaisal Kurea decided he had the capacity for even more overachieving. It was time to take the quote, next logical step.
Jayzal Correa announced that he would be running for a seat on the Fall River City Council. The 22-year-old Democratic candidate flaunted his business acumen, describing how he currently operated a community workspace and a tech company with one acquisition under his belt.
Correa also promoted the fact that he had been involved in community development projects since an early age and that he currently sat on the board of two non-profits. Jaisal Correa promised to bring more jobs to Fall River. He wanted to improve education, increase safety, and launch a citywide solar panel initiative. "My overall goal is to improve the quality of life that all Fall River residents deserve.
In order to build a better future, we must embrace our past and invest in the present," the young candidate announced. Jezal Correa placed 10th out of 18 candidates. Only the top nine finishers were elected to a seat. However, one of those top nine accepted a city administrator appointment from Mayor Will Flanagan. This created a vacancy which was filled by the next in line, 22-year-old Jezal Correa.
Correa started serving his Fall River City Council term on January 6, 2014. By the end of the year, he would be involved in his first political scandal. Hello, I'm Mayor Will Flanagan.
People hated Mayor Will Flanagan. Not only did he institute a bunch of layoffs at the fire department, but he also implemented a new trash collection program called "Pays You Throw" which required residents to buy these official government-approved purple garbage bags and get charged for how much waste one produced. These outrages led to a citizen-led recall in August 2014. Chazelle Correa was one of many Fall River City Councilors to sign that petition.
Mayor Will Flanagan did not appreciate this. Two days later, on August 14th, 2014, the mayor called Correa around 11pm and left a voicemail telling him that he wanted to meet that night at the bar on the waterfront. It was urgent. Later that night, as Jaisal Correa approaches the bar from the street, he sees a SUV parked across the street flashing its lights at him.
He walks over and climbs into the passenger seat. Mayor Flanagan is driving. Local businessman Tommy Gosselin and fellow city councilor Paul Da Silva are in the back seats. They start cruising around Fall River while having a little chat.
Flanagan expresses his anger and disappointment about Jasel signing off on the recall effort. The mayor told the young city councilor that he needed to contact the press and tell them that he was bullied into signing the recall petition by its organizers. I told the mayor, you're a lawyer and you want me to lie and perjure myself? Correa recounted to the Herald News. To get out of the situation, Jasel says he told Mayor Flanagan that he would have to think about it.
Then, according to Jaisal Correa, the mayor pulled a gun out of his console and set it on the dashboard. Flanagan claimed he never left the house without it. From the back seat, Tommy Gosselin leaned forward and told Correa that it was, quote,
dangerous out there kid.
Jaisal Correa went public with the story a few weeks later. Mayor Flanagan completely denied the young counselor's version of events. He did admit that they met and that he carried a gun, but it remained holstered the entire time. Flanagan said it would have been impossible to place a gun on the dashboard because his SUV was
didn't have a dashboard. Did you show him the gun? No, Consul Carrere asked me about my firearm. I did show it to him and told him that I did have a license to carry, which he inquired about. But to say that it was ever brandished and pointed in an intimidating way, that's not the case. I'm very disappointed to hear him. So where would that come from? You know, I'm not going to speculate. Politics is a very dirty game. I'm going to continue to do my job as mayor.
In response to the controversy, Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter appointed a special prosecutor to investigate. Hi folks, I'm Sam Sutter. No criminal charges were ever filed. Correa and Flanagan ended up suing each other but settling privately. Paul Da Silva resigned from the city council over his involvement and the recall effort was successful. There should not be any crying tonight.
Tonight is a night of celebration. I'll look back at our administration, an administration that cared. On December 30th, 2014, the voters of Fall River replaced the mayor, Will Flanagan, with Bristol County District Attorney, Sam Sutter. Hi folks, I'm Sam Sutter. It's a small city, okay? It doesn't take much to gain notoriety, and that's exactly what happened for Jaisal Correa over the next few months.
After the Flanagan incident, everybody in town knew the kid's name. And in local politics, name recognition is more than half the battle. Jaisal Correa had wind beneath his wings. But those aspirations would have to wait. Jaisal had other projects ready to launch. This is Bob. Bob owns a burger joint. Bob wants to tell the whole world about his new burger.
Bob uses social media to promote his burgers, but how can he reach a larger audience? Bob discovered SnowOwl.com. Now Bob's burgers are rock stars.
After years of hard work, Snow Owl was officially approved for download by the Apple App Store on June 4th, 2015. They held a launch party and everything, but no one gave a hoot because two days later, Jaisal Correa II announced his campaign for mayor of Fall River. Hello, my name is Jaisal Correa II. I'm currently a city councilor and a candidate for mayor in this year's municipal election. Jaisal Correa II was exactly what Fall River needed, a
A young, lifelong resident who could bring new ideas to old problems. A young, hip mayor who could attract and retain young talent. This was the path to reinvention for a city forgotten by time and modern industry.
"I mean, who else are you going to vote for? Sam Sutter? Sam Sutter sucks. During his year as internal mayor, he had raised taxes. He didn't get rid of the purple trash bags. In fact, he added a $120 annual fee for waste collection on top of it. If you don't want another fee, vote for me," Correa repeated, really tapping into his marketing background.
"I am Fall River's biggest cheerleader," Jeisel Correa told the Providence Journal. "I am Fall River's salesman." Some of the plans I have are so great for this community. And I look forward to working with you, the voter, every single day, walking the streets, knocking on your doors. This election is about you and your future. This election is about the people struggling to make ends meet. It's about the small business trying to meet payroll.
It's about the student that gets a great education but then can't find a job here in Fall River. This election is about the future of Fall River. In the next 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 30 years beyond, that's what this election is about. I need your help. I need your help to build a better future for Fall River. I need your help to build a better future for me and for you. So I ask that on November 3rd,
You make the decision that is best for our city. And I ask that you vote for Jaisal Kare the second.
Thank you and I look forward to meeting you on the campaign trail.
I'm going to take your money and spend it wisely. That's what I do in my business. You can talk to any of my investor partners and they'll tell you they love Snow Owl, they love their investment. It's not a loan, it's not a debt. The word investor means partner. How is Snow Owl doing, by the way? Does it work? Yeah, it works. Is it profitable? Well, no, not yet. I guess that's not important in the grand scheme of things. Jaisal was always transparent that Snow Owl's ultimate goal was to be acquired, after all.
And, in the spirit of Fall River's official motto, that's what he was trying to do. This is true. Fall River's official motto is "We'll Try." It was meant to express a can-do attitude at the time it was coined, but even Jaisal Correa agreed it hadn't aged well.
One of his goals as mayor would be to rebrand the city, starting with that lame-ass motto. For decades, Fall River has had a negative image outside of the city, within the city. And we have to uplift ourselves because there are so many great things happening here, so many positive things. But it takes a marketing campaign. When you don't have marketing, any business that doesn't have a marketing team will fail. And that's what's happening here in Fall River. This all sounds great, but no matter how many promises are made,
no matter how many good ideas are announced. The winners of modern elections are those who typically raise and spend the most money, and Jaisal Correa was way behind Sam Sutter on this point. Sutter had access to ten times as much funding as Correa,
But, in a stunning turn of events, on November 4th, 2015, 23-year-old Jaisal Correa II was elected as Fall River's 44th mayor with just under 52% of the vote. It is not often that you can say...
that a city the size of Fall River has elected a 23-year-old person to be their next mayor, but that happened last night. And Jaisal Correa is on the phone with us this morning. Good morning, Jaisal. How's it going this morning? What does it feel like to be Fall River's next mayor? It feels great.
Jayzo's campaign manager, Genevieve Andrade, not Andrade, Andrade, shared their strategy with the Fall River Herald News after the victory. Transparency was the key.
Jayzo Correa was sworn in on January 4th, 2016, and he couldn't wait to get started. He reportedly showed up at the government center the next morning before the doors were even unlocked.
True to his word, Jaisal soon eliminated the purple trash bag program by privatizing waste services, which is not what anyone was really asking for, but okay. 25 people were fired instantly when the city's garbage trucks were sold off, but I guess it's about time someone around here made some tough decisions.
Correa also launched the Streetscapes project, which aimed to repair the roads and install lighting. The young mayor also followed through on his promise to take a 25% pay cut to buy an additional police vehicle. Now we're talking. This is the kind of sacrifice that Fall River could get behind.
All I have is a fishbowl and when you don't clean a fishbowl, it gets very murky. And that murkiness doesn't allow you to see what's in the fishbowl. And what my job is as mayor, and I think any mayor needs to do this, is take that fishbowl and throw it into the Totten River or Providence River, wherever you may be. And when you do that, you begin to see exactly what's in the fishbowl. And when I tell people that, they look at me and they say, wow, that's pretty clever.
The young mayor wasn't without criticism, however. For one, the marketing campaign. Residents were unsure about it. Mayor Correa spent $100,000 of the city's budget on a marketing campaign which produced a new logo and slogan. Gone were the days of We'll Try. The new slogan was Fall River, Make It Here. Do you like it?
Jaisal came up with it himself. He even provided the narration for the associated promotional video. Fall River isn't on the mend, it's on the rise. Fall River isn't about accepting your fate, it's about creating your destiny. We can revive pride and instill positivity. We can make room for this rise. We can make it here.
Not everyone was inspired, but that was a minor issue compared to other concerning decisions Mayor Correa was making like his blatant cronyism. Jaisal hired an old high school buddy, Christopher Pereno, to be his chief of staff. Pereno also held lofty titles at Snow Owl and the 104 Business Incubator. He ended up resigning five months into the job before being rehired to a different position later on.
Chazell also tried to create a new position for his friend and mentor Michael Aguiar from the bold days. Correa wanted Aguiar to serve as the city's quote "substance abuse prevention coordinator." We are proposing and announcing today a substance abuse prevention coordinator here in the city and that is Michael Aguiar. City Council rejected the proposal so Mayor Correa changed Michael Aguiar's job description and hired him as a grant coordinator instead.
Aguiar would eventually resign from that position in June 2017 after it was discovered he had spent grant funding on a lavish business trip to New York City that included a four-night stay at the Ritz-Carlton. While the expenditures were approved by the state and not by the city of Fall River, I cannot support what I believe to be excessive expenses by a city employee, Mayor Correa announced. Going forward, I will institute controls to ensure that nothing like this happens again.
Indiscretions such as these reflected poorly on a new mayor trying to find his footing, but nothing raised eyebrows more than an action Jezo Correa himself performed. Shortly after singing the organization's praises, Jezo Correa canceled the city's contract with the Fall River Office of Economic Development. He said the FROED owed the city back rent and was negligent in the maintenance of a parking garage.
The president of the grant-funded private agency, Frank Marchionne, told the Herald News that the organization was totally blindsided by the move, but eventually Frank Marchionne would share that he learned the truth.
During the Office of Economic Development's annual board meeting on April 26, 2017, Marchionne announced that Mayor Jaisal Correa had targeted the agency because Mayor Correa was under investigation by the FBI and the mayor had suspected that someone at FROED was cooperating. The Fall River Herald News had received a similar tip a year earlier. The rumor was that something shady was happening at Snow Owl.
The day after that board meeting, the Herald News published an interview with a Snow Owl investor that shed some light on the budding scandal. Dr. David Cabaceres, a Fall River orthodontist, was worried that his investment in Snow Owl had been misused. He said that he never received proof of investment, never saw any books or financial records pertaining to the business, and never received a return on his investment.
Cabecera said he grew more concerned when he discovered that some of his investment checks were cashed and never deposited into Snow Owl's bank account. He said Jayzo would continue to ask for additional funds up until the day he ran for mayor. After that, the app was practically abandoned. Most of the investors assumed that they'd never get their principal back.
Jason Correa said the story about angry investors and FBI investigations was a nothing burger. It was an election year. People were slinging mud. Sour grapes from an agency scorned. The mayor assured he had had no contact with any federal investigators. If the FBI wanted to get me, they would have gotten me, Correa said.
As for the Snow Owl business, Correa claimed he hadn't been CEO since 2016. He said he handed the role over to someone else when he became mayor. To whom, Correa wouldn't say. As the primary election loomed, Jaisal Correa eventually changed his tune. On September 7th, 2017, the mayor confirmed that he was, in fact, the subject of a federal investigation, and that he did still control Snow Owl.
There may be some issues that we have in terms of accounting.
some tax issues that were corrected long before any of this craziness started, and that's what people are trying to hop on. It is very possible and it is totally legitimate that if an allegation is brought to an agency's attention, that they investigate, that they inquire, that they do their due diligence, that they collect information. But to then take that other step and say that I've done something wrong is not right.
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There was no denying that Jaisal Correa II had left his mark on Fall River during his first term as mayor.
He pointed out all the ways during the debates leading up to the 2017 election. He'd reduced classroom sizes, increased the school budget, increased the public safety budget, and repaired the city's streets, all without raising taxes. Apparently that was enough. That November, Jezo Correa defeated his opponent, Fall River City Councilor Linda Pereira, with 61% of the vote, a landslide victory. ♪
One of Jasel's first actions during his second term as mayor was to name campaign manager Jen Andrade as his new chief of staff.
Then he established a legal defense fund called the Friends of Jaisal F. Correa II Legal Defense Fund. With all these rumors swirling, the mayor never knew when he might have to defend himself in court. Or maybe he knew that day was coming sooner than later. Earlier this morning, Fall River Mayor Jaisal Correa was arrested and charged with nine counts of wire fraud and four counts of tax fraud, all arising from an alleged multi-year investment scam.
Beginning in January 2013 and continuing over the course of four years, Correa allegedly convinced seven people to invest over $363,000 in Snow Owl, a company designing an app to connect local businesses and individuals with a target consumer market. Correa, however, diverted more than $231,000 of that money, about 64%,
to fund his political career and extravagant lifestyle and the needs of his other business ventures. On October 11th, 2018, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling announced that Jaisal Correa II was arrested and charged with wire fraud for defrauding investors in Snow Owl and for filing false tax returns in an attempt to cover his tracks. Of the more than $360,000 invested in the now-defunct app,
jayzo correa allegedly spent 231 000 of it on himself almost 19 000 on designer clothing jewelry an expensive cologne he also had a personal trainer he spent money at the movies strip clubs casinos more than fifty thousand dollars on hotels and fine dining he purchased campaign signage he spent another 37 grand on credit cards student loans and car payments
He reportedly bought some sex toys on Amazon and showered his girlfriend Natalie Cleveland with expensive gifts and trips. Jaisal also pledged thousands of his investors' dollars to help the Fall River Children's Aquarium remain open. Jaisal only paid about half of what he had promised, but still received a plaque in his honor. Jaisal Correa spent all of Snow Owl's money without permission from Snow Owl's investors and without telling them.
This was not about poor accounting or honest mistakes. Correa deceived his investors in Snow Owl on an ongoing basis. He reassured them with fake updates as to Snow Owl's progress and finances, but refused to show anyone financial records like bank statements that would have revealed his expenditures.
At the same time, U.S. Attorney Lelling said Jaisal Kurea had done little to keep Snow Owl a viable business. He became increasingly unresponsive to his investors and business partners, and essentially let Snow Owl rot away in the gutters of Apple's App Store, where many an entrepreneurial dream goes to die.
The software developer stopped receiving paychecks. Correa told them he was having bank troubles. All the while, the mayor was on every local TV channel touting his accomplishments as a small business owner. Little did the Fall River citizens know that their inspiring young leader was under federal investigation. But you know who did know? Jaisal Correa.
He knew he was under investigation for almost six months before he publicly acknowledged it. He lied about it persistently. In fact, while Jasel denied having any knowledge of anything happening behind the scenes, in May 2017, he instructed his accountant to file amended personal tax returns for the years 2013 and 2014 to account for all the investor funds he had spent but had previously failed to report his income.
Jaisal actually received a refund for doing so because he mistakenly filed as a sole proprietorship instead of a partnership. Meanwhile, Snow Owl never made a dime, which US attorney Andrew Lelling alleged was all by design. "The company was first and foremost a clever way to defraud well-intentioned investors and fund Correa's lifestyle."
Jezel Correa was released on bail and denied all the charges. In a statement he said, I love Fall River and its residents. It has been and will continue to be an honor to serve them and to move our city forward. I want to reassure all of my constituents that these unfortunate circumstances will in no way impact the functioning of city government or my commitment to work as hard as I possibly can every day to represent the citizens of the great city of Fall River.
New at noon, Fall River Mayor Jay-Z O'Corea has been arrested and charged with defrauding investors and using funds to pay for a lavish lifestyle and political campaign. That's according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. I've done nothing wrong. If you look at my track record as mayor, all you see is positive results. I was elected and re-elected with 65% of the vote in Fall River.
Once again, Fall River was the laughing stock of New England. All that hope and change had turned into business as usual.
The citizens' response to the mayor's arrest was varied, as you might imagine. Every stage of grief was represented. There was denial. He is innocent until he is proven guilty. I don't care what you think. There was anger, of course, over the sheer hypocrisy.
The kid walked out of jail with a smile on his face. Are you kidding me? No love lost here. I could care less. I hope he goes to jail just like Cianci did if he's guilty. He's a millennial. They always think they're right. That's why government is corrupt. Democracy is kind of a joke, you know, especially in Fall River. So he's a thief and it's a wicked embarrassment for the city. There was bargaining. You know, maybe everyone in Fall River could
come together for once and compromise in an attempt to change reality. Then there was depression. Finally, acceptance. A con artist wins the election.
A story as old as Fall River itself. Fall River City Council agreed that this kid was duck soup. Days after his arrest, the city council called for Jason Correa II to resign as mayor for the sake of the community and his own family.
"Jaisal, do the right thing for the city of Fall River, for your family, and for everybody else. Step down for now." That's Fall River's longest serving city councilor, Leo "The Iron-Wheeled" Pelletier. "Hello, my name is Leo Pelletier." Pelletier said, "I knew it was bad, but I didn't think it was this bad. This is awful, awful for the city."
This coming from a guy who was arrested just a few years earlier for operating an illegal gambling scheme out of the internet cafes that he owned. Pelletier was re-elected after pleading guilty to those charges. Maybe Fall River would forgive Jaisal Correa too? He just needed to explain himself. Less than a week after his arrest, the mayor did exactly that on October 17th, 2018. He called a press conference to refute the charges against him and share his plans for the future.
Today is a difficult day. Today, this whole week, has been the most difficult in my life and of course my family's life. But I am going to show you today via presentation that these allegations made against me that have nothing to do with my job as the mayor of the city of Colorado and that stem all the way back to when I was 20 years old
are 100% false and that I am innocent of every single one of these allegations.
Correa said the investigation had been politically motivated since day one and that the charges held no merit. He pointed out that the crux of the federal government's allegations was that Snow Owl was developed with the intention of defrauding investors from the get-go. Not true, Correa assured, spending the next 40 minutes demonstrating how Snow Owl worked via PowerPoint presentation. I want to show you what the app did. I want you to actually be able to see what it did.
Let me show you what it did. That's the app. You can type in the word vegan. And there you have it. Real business posts. Not fake. Real business posts. This is my favorite one. Vegan cheddar soup. You know how difficult it is to find a cheddar soup that's vegan? Because vegans don't eat dairy? This was really cool stuff. Snow Owl was a viable consumer product, available nationwide on Apple's App Store. And it worked, Mayor Correa said.
That alone should defeat the government's argument that he had defrauded investors because his promise to investors was to develop and deliver a functional iPhone app, and he delivered on that promise. Sure, it hadn't made any money, Correa said, but he believed that Snow Owl still had value and could eventually be sold for a substantial profit, which was the original goal. As every entrepreneur that dreams of selling an app will tell you,
That's their dream. That's their goal. And that was our goal. Furthermore, Correa said, there was no attempt to cover his tracks. He hired the accountant who amended his tax returns before he even knew he was under investigation. Correa presented an email from an investor in 2016 discussing the financial ambiguities as proof. Now, to the question that most of you, I'm sure, are here to find the answer to.
I will continue to every day show you how hardworking your mayor, the mayor of the city of Fall River is. And I will not resign. Good. Everyone loves a fiasco. And Jason Correa started to embrace the bad guy role. In the following weeks, the sitting mayor replied to Facebook posts about the investigation with crying, laughing emojis and then claimed he was hacked.
He also registered a domain in the name of Herald News reporter Jo C. Goode that redirected to a gif of Donald Trump saying "You are fake news" and would reply to her tweets linking to it. By December 2018, the Fall River City Council had seen enough. Hello, my name is Cliff Ponti. Council President Cliff Ponti announced that they had held a vote and Mayor Jezo Correa II had five days to resign or face a recall election.
Steadfast in his innocence, Mayor Jezo Correa refused. A recall election was scheduled for March 12, 2019.
Hello, I'm Joe Pereira, one of the organizers of the effort to recall Mayor Jaisal Correa. And I am urging you to vote yes on the recall question on March 12th. The effort to recall Fall River Mayor Jaisal Correa begins today. The city clerk certified the affidavit for a recall election. The mayor has pleaded not guilty to a federal indictment accusing him of fraud and filing false tax returns related to his personal business. This recall election, just like the last one in Fall River, would
would ask citizens two questions: 1. Should the mayor be recalled? and 2. Who should be the next mayor? And they would choose from a list of candidates which would include Jaisal Correa. So, technically, Mayor Correa could be recalled and re-elected on the same ballot. An outcome that was very possible depending on the number of candidates splitting the votes. Democracy in action. Hello.
My name is Jaisal Correa II. I'm the current mayor of Fall River, and I'm seeking your vote on March 12th to be re-elected as your mayor here in the city of Fall River. I'm also seeking that you vote against the recall in the first part of the ballot. The votes were tallied on the evening of March 12th, 2019. 61% of Fall River voters approved a recall of Mayor Jaisal Correa.
Five replacement candidates were on the ballot. Jaisal's most formidable challenger was school board committee member Paul Coogan, who received 33% of the vote. Hi, I'm Paul Coogan, and I want to become your next mayor. Not this time, Coogan. Jaisal received 35% of the vote, and won by less than 250 total. As many had feared, the other three candidates had combined for 30% of the ballot's cast, paving the way for Correa's triumph.
We're going to keep trying to earn people's votes, earn their trust, earn their votes by doing good things for our community like you've seen us do. Elimination of the purple bags, elimination of $120 trash free, more police on the streets, more firefighters, brand new fire apparatus, brand new high school. The list goes on and on. So that's what I think people want. That's what I'm going to keep doing. And as long as I'm mayor, that's what you're going to get from Jaisal Correa.
For Team Correa, it was a celebration. Winning the recall election meant that Jasel, at the very least, would serve out the remainder of his second term. The incumbent would have to be re-elected to another term in eight months to hold the seat. Clearly, not out of the realm of possibilities. Unless... Almost a year ago, I announced federal fraud charges against Mayor Jasel Correa of Fall River, Massachusetts.
At that time, I said the investigation was still ongoing. Well, we're back. On September 6th, 2019, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling returned to the podium to announce that Jaisal Correa II had been arrested for a second time. In addition to the initial charges of wire and tax fraud relating to Snow Owl, the mayor of Fall River was now being charged with conspiracy, extortion, and bribery.
According to the indictment, Jaisal Correa used his position as mayor to extort thousands of dollars from private citizens trying to set up marijuana dispensaries in the city. The allegations in today's indictment are true. Mayor Correa has engaged in an outrageous, brazen campaign of corruption, which turns his job into a personal ATM.
victimizing not only the specific people noted in the indictment, but the residents of the city that he is supposed to lead. This alleged scheme started back in 2016. Good morning, yes, approving question four means that Massachusetts will be the first East Coast state to allow the recreational use of marijuana. In
In 2016, citizens of Massachusetts voted to legalize recreational marijuana, or cannabis to use a more appropriate term. In order to sell this newly legal cannabis at retail, a prospective shop owner would need to obtain a letter of support or non-opposition from the municipality where the storefront would be located. Additionally, the vendor would need a signed host community agreement from the local government.
which is a document that identifies all stipulations and responsibilities for both parties, including a guarantee of 3% gross sales to the host community. In Fall River, the mayor was granted sole responsibility for issuing the non-opposition letters and approving the host community agreements.
Word from his office was that Jaisal Correa would only be issuing six HCAs, but if pressed, perhaps they could arrive at some kind of, quote, alternative arrangement. That's what David Brayton was offered after his traditional attempts at obtaining the documents were rejected. David Brayton had a mutual friend with the mayor, so he decided to pull those strings.
Tony Costa was a former cannabis trafficker turned Fall River business owner who had no formal role in the Fall River government. But Costa had known Correa since before he was mayor. Costa had invested in Snow Owl. Safe to say the mayor owed him one. Costa told Braden he'd give him a call.
Jason Correa directed Tony Costa to set up a meeting with Hildegard Camara, a family friend and Snow Owl investor who served as the executive director of the Bristol County Training Consortium. Hildegard Camara and Tony Costa held a series of meetings with David Brayton, where Costa shared the numbers. Mayor Correa was, quote, looking to get a donation or a bribe in order to make this work. He was looking for $250,000, Costa told him.
Brayton proposed paying $100,000 up front and the rest when the dispensary turned a profit. Mayor Correa reportedly accepted that offer and kept 80 of that first $100,000 for himself. David Brayton never paid the remaining balance because his business ultimately failed.
A year later, Tony Costa and Hill Camara offered the same deal to a man named Brian Barros. A letter of non-opposition and an approved HCA to open a recreational cannabis dispensary for $250,000. Barros talked him down to $150,000 and paid $25,000 upfront. Mayor Correa was suspicious about the payment and told Tony Costa to return it. But Tony Costa kept it for himself without the mayor's knowledge.
Costa also accepted additional payments from Barros in the form of cash and weed. He figured it was the easiest way to recoup the 50 grand he had invested in Snow Owl that he would never see again. Barros did reportedly receive a non-opposition letter.
Side note, Brian Barros also received a case. Listen to this. In 2022, Brian Barros was indicted for sex trafficking and sexual conduct with an animal. Barros allegedly drugged a woman in a hotel room and, quote, tried to force his family dog, a pit bull named Bane, to perform oral sex on the victim, and he took photos of it. Barros pleaded not guilty and then threatened the victim while out on bond.
That's the kind of people Fall River's mayor was dealing with. His chief of staff, Jen Andrade, recognized the sketchiness of it all. At a lunch with the cannabis vendor, she shared that the mayor was issuing far more non-opposition letters than he had promised and meeting with a bunch of shady people. Also, quote, if you want to hear something really fucked up, he is taking half my salary.
That was true. Every time Jen Andrade was paid, she wrote a check for half of it to Jaisal Correa. He'd even negotiated a $10,000 snow stipend for his chief of staff and kept 85% of it. For the first seven months that Andrade worked for Mayor Correa, she paid him almost $23,000, a disgusting abuse of power.
Gin Andre was a victim, but her hands weren't exactly clean. After a meeting with a cannabis vendor in which $75,000 was exchanged for a letter on the spot, on the way out, Andre reportedly told the vendor, quote, your family now.
Jaisal Correa was getting everyone involved in his dirty little games. Even his landlord, David Hebert, played middleman for a cannabis vendor. Hebert negotiated a $25,000 bribe for Correa, plus a forgiven mortgage for himself. Only half of the payment was made before Jaisal Correa was arrested. By then he had issued at least 14 non-opposition letters to cannabis vendors in Fall River, including two for his current girlfriend's brother.
In return, Jezo Correa had collected about $600,000 in cash.
To their credit, Fall River City Council recognized that something stunk and passed an order to limit the number of NO letters for issuance. Mayor Correa vetoed that order on August 19, 2019. Something that we all know, but we completely ignore, is the money that's been given to the administration by these marijuana companies for these licenses and the kickback monies we can collect.
Those additional charges were here. Jezo Correa was now facing a total of 24 counts, including bribery, wire fraud, and extortion conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty.
53-year-old Antonio "Tony" Costa was charged with extortion and lying to federal investigators. Authorities allege Costa was also involved in a different permitting scheme to get the city to activate a water line at a property he owned. The taxpayers footed the bill for $11,000. In return, Costa gave Mayor Correa a $9,000 Rolex.
60-year-old Hildegard Camara was also charged with extortion and lying to investigators, as was Correa's former landlord, 57-year-old David Hebert. All three men eventually pleaded guilty and were sentenced to three years probation. Costa and Camara agreed to testify against Jason Correa.
50-year-old Genevieve Andrade would not testify against her boss. She was charged with six counts of extortion, bribery, and lying to federal officials even though she in no way benefited financially from Correa's schemes.
Andrade initially pleaded not guilty, but eventually accepted the plea to serve one year probation and pay a $50,000 fine. Andrade apologized to Fall River, adding, I made a serious mistake when I got involved with Jaisal Correa. I wish I never laid eyes on him.
Meanwhile, Jaisal Correa again pointed to a nefarious political plot to oust him as the reason for his second arrest. It happened 11 days before the primary. What more proof do you need? Correa was self-assured that he would be vindicated at his trial, which was scheduled for April 20, 2020.
Ha, 420. I've done nothing but good for the great city of Fall River with me and my staff and my team. And I'm going to continue to do great things for our city. And that's all I have to say today. Thank you. Days after the mayor's second arrest, the Fall River City Council again asked him to resign. He refused. So on September 10th, 2019, the council voted to relieve him of his duties. Hello?
Yes. Yes. Jaizel Correa refused to abide by the vote and started talking about himself in the third person. None of it is grounded in fact. So where did it come from? Jaizel Correa has never done anything illegal. A giant political stunt is how Jaizel referred to the council's vote. Just like the criminal charges. While we're at it, who appointed U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, Correa asked. Donald Trump. That's right. Nuff said.
That was a giant political stunt that the council had last night. I will leave the building and go home like every other city employee and I will campaign all weekend like I do and then I will be back on Monday morning at 9 a.m. I don't expect any police officers to be here. Chazel was legally correct to do this. According to the Herald News, the Fall River City Charter does not grant the city council the authority to temporarily remove a mayor charged with a felony from office.
Instead, the Charter requires the removal of an elected official convicted of a felony. Jasel hadn't been convicted of anything yet. And guess what?
There was an election coming up. Hello, my name is Jaisal Correa II. I'm currently the mayor of Fall River and I'm seeking your vote on September 17th and again November 5th to be re-elected as your mayor. This time Jaisal Correa finished a distant second behind Paul Coogan in the preliminary election held on September 17th, 2019. But he still qualified for the ballot in November and he was positive he could recapture the hearts and minds of Fall River before then. They've been intimidated.
They've been told false information and I understand where they're at in their heart and in their minds. They don't know what the future holds for Jaisal Kareya. And I can understand how that can be a scary thing. While waiting for his trial, Jaisal Kareya II showed up to every debate during the race for the mayor's seat. Becoming mayor of his hometown was Jaisal's destiny. They were going to have to pry it from his soft millennial hands.
I have not ever betrayed the trust of the citizens of Fall River. And I cannot, I cannot...
I cannot blame myself. I cannot feel sorry that I have been accused. There are people standing here on this table that have been accused. You at home may have been accused of something. You can't stop yourself from being accused. But you know what? I can stand here tonight and honestly look at every single person in this community and say, "I have done the best job that I can as your mayor, and I am asking for your vote to continue to be the mayor of this city."
But then, on October 15th, 2019, Jezo Correa had a change of heart. He called a press conference to announce that he was suspending his campaign and taking a quote, "temporary absence from his responsibilities as mayor." Good morning. Good morning. Good afternoon. I'm here today to officially announce my decision to forego my campaign for reelection as the mayor of Fall River and take a temporary absence from my responsibilities as the mayor of the city.
the mayor's day-to-day duties would shift to council president cliff ponti correa told the boston globe he was stepping away and suspending his campaign so quote the city is not distracted by this assault on my career and my legacy however jason correa's name would still appear on the november ballot
But Fall River had enough. Paul Coogan won the mayoral race easily. Jezel Correa's term expired on January 6, 2020, and he disappeared from the spotlight for the first time in years. Gone but not forgotten,
Hundreds tuned in to the Zoom livestream of Jaisal Correa's trial in April 2020. The prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zachary Hafer and David Tobin, painted Jaisal as a manipulative con artist whose background as a successful tech entrepreneur was completely made up. He convinced and persuaded people from all walks of life to do what he wanted, Hafer said. And what he wanted was money. And what he wanted was power.
the defendant sold the city of Fall River. Hafer described Jezel Correa's crimes as much worse than those of some of Massachusetts' most infamous politicos, including state senator Diane Wilkerson, who, interestingly enough, was sentenced by federal judge Douglas Woodlock, the same judge presiding over the Correa case.
The defense, led by Kevin Reddington, characterized Jeisel as an unsophisticated businessman. Reddington described his own client as dumb and, quote, "...not good with figures and math and stuff." The defense argued that none of Correa's crimes were intentional, but rather the result of ignorance.
During opening statements, Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Hafer told the jury this case is, quote, about lying, cheating, stealing and shakedowns. The defense argued that Correa wasn't hiding anything when spending Snow Owl money, arguing, quote, it's his money from his point of view. The trial would last almost four weeks and feature 36 witnesses.
Business partners, snow owl investors, government officials, marijuana vendors, everyone showed up to testify against Jaisal, including the co-founder of Jaisal's first app, FindIt Networks. Alicomendez told the court that FindIt only earned a few thousand dollars in revenue during the short period of time it was operable.
More importantly, Mendez confirmed that Find It was never sold, which is what Jaisal Correa had told everybody, including his ex-girlfriend Natalie Cleveland. She assumed that the sale of Find It financed most of the trips and dinners they shared over their three-and-a-half-year relationship. "I was never told how much the app sold for," Natalie testified, "but my assumption was several hundred thousand dollars."
In reality, as Natalie Cleveland discovered in court that day, at the time, Jaisal Correa was selling shoes at Nordstrom's. The defense only called three witnesses. Jaisal Correa was not among them. On May 13, 2021, after several days of deliberations, the jury reached a verdict.
Jezal Correa II was found guilty of 21 counts of wire fraud, tax fraud, extortion, and extortion conspiracy. He was acquitted of three other counts. This is U.S. Attorney Nathaniel Mendel, who replaced Andrew Lelling. In business, he promoted himself as a successful app developer. Not quite. As the jury found today, the truth is that he went to people who trusted him, who believed in him,
and he took their investments for an app, but he used the money mostly for himself. For romantic getaways, for casinos, cars, adult entertainment, sex toys. Appalling. He even used some of the money to fund his mayoral campaign in Fall River. And in politics and government, he promoted himself as the man with honest answers for Fall River. But in the end, he sold his office.
He extorted bribes from people who wanted to open marijuana dispensaries in his city. He sold his office and he sold out the people of Fall River. That is illegal. Speaking to reporters immediately after his conviction, Jaisal Correa was still living in a different reality, making some comments which his defense team would later describe as ill-advised.
The defense was drafting their appeal before Correa was even sentenced. "Not a great day, but I've had other not great days and everybody here knows that. Let's watch this unfold. But we're going to have a great day of vindication and eventually the real truth will come out. There were no facts that were brought
Before he was sentenced on September 20th, 2021, Jesus Correa married Jenny Fernandez.
She, along with other friends, family, and faith leaders, wrote letters to Judge Woodlock recommending leniency. The prosecution was aiming for 11 years and $900,000 in penalties. For reasons unrelated, Judge Woodlock ended up tossing out most of the wire fraud charges based on insufficient evidence, but still referred to Correa's crimes as, quote, "...reprehensible corruption."
If we can't trust each other, if we can't trust government, where are we? Judge Woodlock asked. This is the fundamentally corrosive crime that a community faces. It undercuts, eviscerates the community. Woodlock continued. A crime committed in this way is as crude as anything imaginable. City Hall was for sale. There is no justification or explanation other than greed and hubris for what he did.
But still, Judge Woodlock said he wanted to leave Jaisal Correa some, quote, light at the end of the tunnel. 30-year-old Jaisal Correa was sentenced to six years in prison with three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $310,240 restitution to Snow Owl Investors.
Former Fall River Mayor Jaisal Correa will spend six years behind bars for corruption. The federal judge who sentenced him says Correa, quote, showed a complete lack of remorse for his crimes. Yesterday, that same judge threw out eight of the 21 counts against Correa, saying prosecutors failed to prove them during trial. He was facing up to 20 years in prison.
After 20 weeks of delays, Jaisal Correa reported to prison on April 22, 2022. His appeal was denied in November 2022, the same year that Fall River adopted a new logo, officially ridding itself of that Correa stench. Also the same year that Jaisal's wife and business partner launched a new app. It's called It's a Vibe, the quote, first and only iOS app that connects local influencers with businesses. Hooray.
Jezel Correa is scheduled for release in October 2026, but of course, he's still fighting to get out sooner. "Jezel Correa has been locked up for two years, but now the imprisoned former mayor of Fall River wants out." "He wants out now. The silver-tongued convicted con man says his lawyer messed up." According to the Herald News, on May 16th, 2024, Jezel Correa filed a motion claiming his defense attorney, Kevin Reddington,
attempted to extort money from him and take a 20% portion of ownership of Snow Owl. He's a liar, Reddington told the newspaper. And by the way, 20% of nothing is nothing. Oh, River, oh, oh, River, you are the leading city of America. Not for stills, but for cotton mills. From your mills we are clothing the world.
Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard, a.k.a. Deformer, a.k.a. Duck Soup. For more information about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok at swindledpodcast. He's a millennium. Or you can send us a postcard at PO Box 6044 Austin, Texas 78762. But please, no packages. We do not trust you.
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