Lawyer for disgraced celebrity adviser is arrested

NEW YORK — A former lawyer for a financial adviser to celebrity clients was arrested Thursday on money-laundering charges filed in New York alleging he helped conceal the adviser’s Ponzi-like scheme.

Attorney Jonathan Bristol was to be arraigned later Thursday in federal court in Manhattan. The name of his attorney was not immediately available.

An indictment alleges that Bristol hid investor money stolen by Kenneth Starr — a one-time adviser to Wesley Snipes, Sylvester Stallone and Martin Scorsese — in secret escrow accounts.

Prosecutors say Bristol raided the accounts in January to pay $1 million to settle a claim by a disgruntled Starr client. They say another $100,000 was used to cover bills from Bristol’s law firm.

In April, Bristol also used the escrow accounts to help Starr siphon $7 million in investors’ money to buy Starr a five-bedroom, six-bath condominium, the indictment says. Prosecutors had previously alleged that $5.75 million of the total was stolen from a 100-year-old heiress.

“A professional, such as an attorney, cannot knowingly use an escrow account funded with illegally obtained money, or look the other way without questioning where the money came from,” Charles Pine, head of the Internal Revenue Service’s investigation unit in New York, said in a statement.

In September, Starr pleaded guilty to cheating wealthy and elderly clients out of tens of millions of dollars by secretly diverting their money into risky investments or into his own pockets. He admitted defrauding them since 2005, losing between $20 million and $50 million of their money.

There’s no indication Snipes, Scorsese or Stallone were victims. An IRS criminal complaint said cheated clients included a former hedge fund manager and well-known philanthropist, an actress who was a longtime friend of Starr’s, a former talent agency executive and his wife and a prominent jeweler with a flagship Manhattan store. They were not identified by name.

One of several bank accounts linked to Starr, whose wife is a former stripper, is held under the name “Poledance Superstar,” an indictment says. The government is seeking forfeiture of that account and several others.

If convicted, Bristol faces a maximum 20 years in prison.