Pa. lawyer pleads to working with Scarfo Jr. to defraud financial company

A Pennsylvania lawyer today pled guilty in the attempted mob takeover of a financial services company.

Cory Leshner, 30, of West Reading, was part of an alleged plot led by mobster Nicodemo S. Scarfo and his top associate to pillage $12 million from the FirstPlus Financial Group, federal prosecutors said.

FirstPlus was a onetime high flyer in the subprime mortgage industry. Shortly after its stock went into a tailspin, collapsing from $60 to 20 cents a share, Scarfo and his associate Salvatore Pelullo targeted the company for takeover and deposed its board of directors, prosecutors said.

Leshner, who pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, was a law school student when he first joined the scheme. He admitted that he helped manage family trusts and companies under direction of Pelullo as part of the plan to defraud the Texas-based company.

Before the feds shut the operation down, millions of dollars were stripped from FirstPlus by having it buy worthless New Jersey companies owned by Scarfo and Pelullo. Prosecutors said the men used the money to buy a $600,000 private jet, and $850,000 yacht, a $100,000 Audi, a $715,000 home in South Jersey and a $217,000 black Bentley Convertible.

Scarfo, Pelullo and five other defendants were charged in Nov. 2011. They are scheduled to go to trial later this month.

Leschner faces a maximum of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced Jan. 17, 2014 in U.S. District Court in Camden.

Scarfo's wife Lisa Marie pleaded guilty Sept. 17 to federal charges of conspiring to defraud a mortgage company in order to buy a $715,000 house in Egg Harbor Township.