By STEVE MASCORD
A PROMINENT official of the USA Rugby League has been arrested and charged with 11 offences including fraud, kidnapping and extortion.
He is also accused of trying to have a democratic party official killed
New York lawyer Richard Luthmann, 38, was a founding director and legal counsel for the USARL, which took over the running of the sport in the United States from the now-defunct AMNRL two years ago. His signature appears on the body’s constitution.
On Friday, he and three others were arrested by the FBI. One of the charges against him, as reported in the New York Post, was that he recruited a blind person to act as a director in a fake company.
“As alleged, Richard Luthmann crossed the line from attorney to violent criminal and faudster,” said acting Brooklyn US attorney Bridget Rhode.
“Luthmann and his co-conspirators cheated scrap metal customers in order to make easy money for themselves, took advantage of a disabled man to conceal their fraud and used gunpoint extortion to collect a purported debt.”
You just can’t make the stuff up https://t.co/sr2Sm5NG4U Maybe this @USARugbyLeague Founding Director, Board Member, Legal Counsel etc etc will get Rugby League going in the US Federal Prison system soon?! @IntlRL@therealsteavis@2025RLWC@nickwalshaw@RugbyWrapUp@FloRugby
— USA Tomahawks (@USA_Tomahawks) December 19, 2017
The allegation that Luthmann hired George Padula III to kill former Staten Island Democratic Party executive director Kevin Elkins and “beat up” party chairman John Gulino came to light when Luthmann applied for bail.
The approach to Padula came after a failed bid by Luthmann for public office ended in Elkins turning him away at the door of a party function
Elkins, who was 23 at the time of the alleged offence, told the New York Post: “Obviously it’s very serious and I’m glad he’s off the streets, but if he couldn’t handle a 23-year-old good luck in a federal prison, buddy.”
The original allegations surround Luthmann and co-accused Padula setting up a company which purported to sell scrap metal but actually planned to fill containers with cheap filler material.
Luthmann allegedly established bogus companies and recruited a blind client of his law practise to be president of one of the companies.
The lawyer is also accused of inviting a co-conspirator to a meeting to sign some paper work. When the co-conspirator got there, he allegedly was met by Padula and another defendant, Michael Beck.
Beck is claimed to have pulled a gun on him and demanded $10,000.
Luthmann, Beck and and Padula are accused of kidnapping, extortionate collection of credit and brandishing a firearm. There are also conspiracy charges.
They face life imprisonment.
Oh my…..
Well. You can’t say we didn’t warn you (insert Rugby League International Federation here) about… https://t.co/pxBOumYSDQ
— AMNRL (@amnrl) December 19, 2017
In 2015 the USARL announced its formation under a board consisting of Peter Illfield, Stephen Williams, Richard A. Luthmann, Esq., JD LLM, Daryl ‘Spinner’ Howland, Matthew Bailey and two others who had not yet been appointed.
Luthmann reportedly once challenged a business rival to a duel. He was also accused of setting up fake Facebook pages on which he posed as political candidates.
That expedition into fake news territory inspired a TV expose.
The AMNRL, through its social media accounts, has wasted no time in taunting its rival organisation over Luthmann’s dramatic fall from grace.
“Maybe this @USARugbyLeague Founding Director, Board Member, Legal Counsel etc etc will get Rugby League going in the US Federal Prison system soon?!” the @USA_Tomahawks account said.
