I won the biggest ever lottery jackpot but lost my $83million fortune after trusting a lawyer seen on morning shows

A LOTTERY winner lost $83million of her $600million lottery fortune after her lawyer was charged with wire fraud in connection to her case.

Attorney Jason Kurland allegedly steered his clients to invest millions in companies he owned and took illegal kickbacks as part of the scheme, according to New York federal prosecutors.

Kurland pleaded not guilty to all counts when at trial, arguing other defendants in the case mislead him to make poor investment choices, according to Reuters.

He was convicted of five counts of wire fraud, honest services wire fraud, and money laundering in July.

The lottery winners, who have never been named, became infinitely overwhelmed when they won a $1.5billion jackpot in October 2018, the largest Mega Millions jackpot in a single ticket at the time.

The South Carolina woman drove to the store where she bought the ticket to ensure she had won.

She was met by crowds and loads of reporters, according to The State

"I so badly wanted to get out of there, I wanted to go under the seat, I became anxious," she said in trial testimony against Kurland.

The winner, who went by the pseudonym Beth Smith, said she only had a 401k and a checking account and worked as an insurance underwriter before she won the lottery.

She and her husband, a lawyer, were living comfortably and did not need immediate access to the funds.

Deeply concerned for their own privacy and safety, they held off on claiming the ticket and stashed it in a safety deposit box until they could figure out what else to do.

"We considered attorneys. We considered financial advisors. We considered accountants. We considered, you know, investment firms; that kind of thing," she said.

They found Kurland from his work as a pundit talking about lottery winnings, as he had previously represented multiple clients who won hundreds of millions of dollars.

"He was on, you know, the morning shows and the like, and it looked like he certainly knew about lottery — he had a specialty in lottery winners and, you know, we looked online and he seemed very capable," the woman said.

A call was made to Kurland by the winner's husband from a burner phone in December, and they met in Las Vegas, without him even knowing their names.

They enlisted him to collect the prize, donate the money to charity, and keep them anonymous.

With security cameras turned off and windows covered and in the presence of multiple lottery officials, the woman and her husband went to the South Carolina Commission office to claim their prize, having been driven there by security.

They donated a chunk of the $878million pre-tax winnings to the city of Simpsonville Arts Center; Ronald McDonald House of Charities of Columbia; One S.C. Fund – for Hurricane Florence Relief; In The Middle of Columbia; and the American Red Cross Alabama Region - Tornado Relief Fund.

Kurland was paid a $200,000 flat fee.

The remainder of the funds was handled by Kurland, who opened accounts in five different banks.

The central location for the funds was at Bank Leumi USA, in New York City, where in-house money managers handled the funds.

The woman and her husband were adamant that they did not want to take any investment risks, as the large sum of money was already enough to sustain their family for generations.

The catch: all of the bank accounts were in Kurland's name and the winners did not get any statements or balance information, trial testimony revealed.

"He had access to it. We did not. He set it up as if it was, basically, his account," the woman said.

Kurland was paid $50,000 a month for his investment services and the rest of the money was used by members of the family.

The family went to the Masters, and their in-laws went to the Kentucky Derby.

An autographed photo of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, the famed Notre Dame football player, was purchased for the winner's husband.

Ten family members were also supposed to receive $12,500 a month, cut by a Family Partnership created off of the interest of Kurland's Investments.

Kurland invested $20million in JBMML and $10million in Cheddar Capital, stocks, and allegedly shoddy investments with an interest rate of 9 percent, trial testimony revealed.

He further invested in a diamond merchant, Greg Altieri, who Kurland claimed would give a $2million return on a $12million dollar investment, the women testified at trial.

In reality, prosecutors said Altieri had accrued between $75 million to $85 million in investments he claimed he would use to purchase jewels at "closeout" prices, which would then be resold at a high profit "yielding returns on those investments of between 30 and 70 percent in a matter of months."

While he purchased some jewelry, he used most of the funds to pay back investors, according to prosecutors.

Kurland also advised the winners to invest in thoroughbred race horses for a million dollars, and nearly $20million in a PPE company.

They purchased multiple properties and a hotel, both for pleasure and investment.

Eventually, the red flags showed.

The woman claimed the payments to family members became "very irregular," in different amounts that were guaranteed to them.

The diamond merchant was also being investigated, a fact the woman learned after she was contacted by the FBI.

Altieri was allegedly a Ponzi schemer who used cash advances to sell his work to department stores and promised nonexistent wholesale jewelry deals, according to federal prosecutors.

He had also allegedly lost $200million of his investor's cash and pleaded guilty to his charges.

Eventually, Kurland and three others who were connected to the winnings' investments, and to those of other winners, were arrested.

The winner reportedly had no idea how to get access to her money and feared Kurland would steal it if he was out of jail, as he was still the one with access.

When she finally gained access, she discovered Kurland was charging himself a one percent finder's fee, in addition to the $50,000 on all investments.

He also allegedly lied about the number of racehorses he purchased, and $19.5million was missing from the account.

"The only thing I can think of is theft," the anonymous winner said.

Bloomberg News reported those funds were used to invest in more PPE, without the winners knowing.

At Kurland's trial, he and his associates were accused of stealing more than $100million altogether from multiple clients, prosecutors said.

They allegedly spent the funds on boats, luxury cars, country club memberships, and other lavish trips to a Range Rover dealership and Dick's sporting goods, Bloomberg reported.

Gerald McMahon, a defense attorney who has frequently represented alleged mobsters and white-collar crime told Bloomberg: "I’ve been at this for 40 or more years, and I’ve never seen a guy that was deader in the water with the evidence against him than Jason Kurland."

According to Bloomberg, Kurland, a Hofstra University law school graduate, began his practice in real estate deals.

Eventually gaining his way into the lottery industry after a client had a friend who won, he made his way into sneaky investments.

His friend and business partner Francis Smookler, an ex-stockbroker, and Kurland's neighbor in Dix Hills, Long Island, had to settle lawsuits against a dozen clients who felt their money was mismanaged.

The US Sun has reached out to attorneys for Altieri and Kurland for comment.