![]() “Based on the materials reviewed to date,” Brafman said in a statement faxed to me a few weeks later, “it is clear to us that Mr. On the day of his arrest, Jacob’s high-powered New York lawyer Benjamin Brafman issued a denial of all the charges against him, saying, “All of the cash earned by Jacob Arabov from the sale of jewelry was fully reported, and all the appropriate I.R.S. “A ‘nominee’ is a person that provides fraudulent qualifications and/or identity so that the true identity of the money-launderer is concealed,” says Glen Morisano of the N.Y.P.D., considered an expert in the field. for cash transactions over $10,000-“after having received large sums of currency” from the Flenory brothers “and others on their behalf,” and with the “knowing acceptance of large sums of currency, money orders and cashier’s checks from persons he knew to be nominees” of the Flenorys. He was also being charged with “the failure to file Forms 8300”-required by the I.R.S. “He denies everything in the indictment.” “ denies all the allegations in the indictment,” as well, said his lawyer, James Feinberg. in any way,” said his lawyer, William Daniel, on the phone. The Flenory brothers, now both in custody in Michigan, pleaded not guilty earlier this year. A single paragraph in its 39-page May indictment of the Black Mafia Family (in which “Jacob the Jeweler” is charged along with 40 others with lively and multiple a.k.a.’s) said that “Jacob Arabov facilitated the purchase of jewelry utilizing the drug proceeds of Terry Lee Flenory, Demetrius Flenory”-the brothers who were allegedly B.M.F.’s leaders-“in order to conceal the true source, nature and ownership of the funds involved in these transactions.” The United States District Court in Detroit had provided few details about the case. Four hundred guests-including his friend Sean “Diddy” Combs, the Bad Boy Entertainment mogul whom Jacob called “Uncle Puff”-had celebrated as Mya, Pras, and Boyz II Men performed. His 40th-birthday party, “held at the Midtown Cipriani’s, was said to cost over a million dollars,” reported The New York Times. The New York Post ran the story on its front page-bling sting “jacob the jeweler” in drug-$$ bust-with a picture of Jacob looking debonair, flashing his “Jacob.” It was big news in New York, where Jacob had become a sort of celebrity, often snapped at events with other, bona fide celebrities-sometimes playfully flashing what looked to be his version of a gang sign. When the story hit the papers the next day that Jacob the Jeweler had been arrested and charged with money-laundering for a notorious Detroit-based, alleged drug gang known as the Black Mafia Family, the question nobody seemed able to answer was: Why? ![]() He had a reputation for being accommodating. Jacob stared at him a moment, smiled, and said, “Come on in.” ![]() “How you doin’?” said a man standing there, commanding officer Glen Morisano of the N.Y.P.D.’s Drug Enforcement Task Force. Drug-enforcement agents and state police. ![]() The windows glittered with bling.Īt 10:15, when the car pulled up, there were six New York cops standing outside. Lenny Kravitz had come to the opening party. He had put diamonds on all kinds of things, from rapper Slick Rick’s eye patch to the hood ornament on A Bathing Ape founder Nigo’s Rolls-Royce Phantom.Įver since he’d landed in New York, he had dreamed of owning a piece of it, and now he did: the $12.1 million landmark town house on 57th at Park, where he’d moved Jacob & Co. ![]() As the car turned west onto the Long Island Expressway, the Manhattan skyline appeared before him, the Empire State Building rising like a platinum castle. Jacob never imagined that, like something out of a hip-hop song, the police were trailing him into the city. Their driver, Alex, pulled out of the driveway of their multi-million-dollar brick Colonial in leafy Forest Hills, Queens, 20 minutes from Manhattan. ![]()
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