A former crony of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is accused of using his alleged links to the Kardashians to lure victims in a diamond fraud scheme.
Jona Rechnitz, who was already sentenced to 10 months jail after pleading guilty in a corruption scheme, is now facing a separate fraud lawsuit involving $15million in gems.
Although they have no direct connections to the alleged scheme, Rechnitz shared footage of himself partying with Kim Kardashian at a November jewelry show in New York in an attempt to convince a judge to 'go easy on him' during December's sentencing.
In this latest fraud, however, Rechnitz is alleged to have used the jewelry show as a way to draw in more victims to his fraud.
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There is no suggestion that any members of the Kardashian clan knew of what was happening. But Rechnitz, along with his wife Rachel, shared photos on their social media accounts of clients Kylie Jenner and Kim as well as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio in order 'to create a false sense of credibility' for themselves, documents seen by the New York Post say.
The Rechnitzes' business is called Jadelle and Jewelry Diamonds, based in Beverly Hill, California.
Rechnitz is alleged to have tricked an investor Victor Franco Noval into loaning him millions of dollars.
Court papers say Rechnitz touted his 'political and powerful celebrity connections,' to lure him in resulting in Noval loaning Rechnitz $2.8 million last January.
At the time, Noval was unaware of Rechnitz's history which includes bribing a New York City correction-union official in a retirement-fund scheme.
Rechnitz was supposed to pay Noval the loan back at an interest rate of 9 percent a month.
He is alleged to have given Noval $7 million in diamonds as well as a Bugatti car worth $400,000 as collateral.
However, it wasn't long before Rechnitz missed a payment deadline on the loan at which point Noval sold off the car for $400,000 and demanded the rest of the cash be paid back.
According to the suit Rechnitz then told Noval that if he returned the diamonds he would write him two checks to the tune of $3.8 million.
Noval agreed to the deal and brought the diamonds back to Rechnitz but the checks later bounced according to the suit after the Rechnitzes allegedly organized a worker at Wells Fargo Bank to have them stopped.
Noval's lawyer, Ronald Richards believed there are more victims of Rechnitz's and estimates his alleged scheming to be around $15 million.
Noval is hoping that by filing his own lawsuit it will encourage others who have allegedly been scammed by Rechnitz to come forward and report it.
'He lied to his sentencing judge and has bamboozled the amazing prosecutors … who went to bat for him,' Richards said to The Post.
The lawsuit targets Rechnitz, his wife and two alleged accomplices and alleges fraud, civil theft and breach of contract, among other things.
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