Celebrity News

Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s ex busted in $300M stock scheme

The feds say a failed actor-turned-showbiz manager-turned-investment adviser ran a pump-and-dump stock scam right out of “The Sopranos” — which just happens to be his ex-wife’s TV show.

Calling himself a financial “Yoda,” Abraxas “A.J.” Discala, 43, the former manager and ex-hubby of “Sopranos” star Jamie Lynn-Sigler, artificially inflated the stock prices of four companies and then dumped shares to oblivious investors for a windfall profit, according to Brooklyn federal prosecutors.

The alleged $300 million penny stock swindle would have put a glint in the eye of Tony Soprano, who once had underling Chris Moltisanti pull the same scheme for his New Jersey mob clan on the smash HBO series on which Sigler starred as the crime boss’ daughter from 1999-2007.

Sounding more like his ex’s fictional pop than a CEO, Discala was caught blustering on federal wiretaps with a co-conspirator.

“It’s like going to the casino with their chips,” Discala allegedly told investor Victor Azrak of their scheme. “You still don’t know the game. Ok, listen, I’m Yoda, you’re Obi-Wan, ok? You don’t get him clients and look for the shtup on the 10,000. You f—— take things out and let him buy the s— out of them. And that’s how you make money.”

Discala again admired his dark talents in another recorded yap session with Azrak.

“I structured it perfectly,” he said of his manipulation of the stock price of CodeSmart, a medical training company whose CEO was allegedly in on the scam.

“I know, that’s beautiful,” Azrak said. “By the way…that stock is in the hall of fame, you know that?

“It should be in the hall of shame,” Discala said.

The CEO of OmniView Capital Advisors, Discala was arrested in Las Vegas Thursday morning and was held without bail on ten fraud counts. He faces up to 30 years in prison.

The swindle – which cost investors $50 million in losses – began in October of 2012 and ended with Thursday’s arrests of Discala and six others.

A pair of brokers, a lawyer, two corrupt investors and CodeSmart CEO Ira Shapiro were all hit with fraud raps in connection with the scheme.

Discala served as Sigler’s manager before the pair got hitched in 2003 when she was just 19. They were divorced three years later.

Sigler told Page Six in 2008 that she regretted getting married at such a young age and that Discala controlled much of her life during the union.

“I didn’t know who I was,” she said of her time with Discala. “But, man, am I glad we didn’t have children.”

Many of the fraud victims were elderly investors who couldn’t afford to have their savings raided by Discala and his band of “thieves,” said US Attorney Loretta Lynch.

“This was A.J. Discala – the puppet master pulling the strings of the market to get the results he wanted,” she said Thursday. “When the defendants stopped their criminal game of musical shares it was the unsuspecting investors who were left holding the bag.”

Through fabricated press releases and financial reports, Discala and his crew managed to slowly build the value of the rickety companies until they unloaded them on investors.

A lien was placed on Discala’s million dollar Norwalk, Connecticut home after his arrest Thursday and several of his bank accounts were also frozen, Lynch said.

“Anyone who knows A.J. is shocked by these allegations, and that’s exactly what they are—merely allegations,” said his attorney, Joe Tacopina. “He will vigorously defend this case.”

In an odd twist, CodeSmart counted former Governor David Paterson as an adviser although Lynch said he wasn’t involved in the stock manipulation.

Also arrested were brokers Craig Josephberg and Matthew Bell, Nevada attorney Kyleen Kane, CodeSmart CEO Ira Shapiro and corrupt investors Marc Wexler and Azrak.

Josephberg, Azrack and Shapiro were all released on $1 million bond at their Brooklyn federal court arraignment and didn’t comment.