Feds could ice hockey con men

TWO MEN accused of ripping off $15 million from a group of NHL players will face lengthy prison terms if convicted by a jury in the criminal trial scheduled to begin next month at the federal courthouse on Long Island.

Phil Kenner and Tommy Constantine, who have both pleaded not guilty to fraud and money-laundering charges, made appearances at the U.S. District Court in Central Islip on Wednesday. Since their arrest in late 2013, Kenner has been held at a Queens prison while Constantine, out on bail, has been under house arrest in Arizona.

In the status conference Wednesday, prosecutors said they will need four weeks to present a case they say will show that Kenner and Constantine stole millions from more than a dozen current and former NHL players, as well as a group of New York policemen and others.

District Court Judge Joseph Bianco set a date of April 28 for the start of jury selection in the trial. If convicted, both men could face more than 10 years in prison.

Last week, Bianco denied a defense motion to split the case into two separate trials, one for each defendant, despite defense attorney Robert La Russo’s argument that Kenner and Constantine will turn on each other at trial.

“We’re also moving for severance on the grounds that there are substantially antagonistic defenses between Mr. Kenner and Mr. Constantine,” La Russo said in court last week. “They’re going to be pointing the finger at each other.”

The government countered with its own argument for keeping the men together.

“Some of those witnesses are going to see on the stand for the first time how the money went into the pockets of the defendants, Kenner and Constantine,” Assistant U.S. Attorney James Miskiewicz said.

Miskiewicz said at Wednesday’s hearing that the grand jury in the case may hear more evidence.

“To this day, the grand jury’s investigation has not concluded,” Miskiewicz told the court, raising the possibility that more charges could be added to the nine already included in the indictment.

Kenner and Constantine were partners in a series of companies that were presented as can’t-miss investments, including real estate developments in Hawaii and Mexico, as well as a prepaid credit card company. Investigators claim to have found evidence of fake investments, lavish expenses and forged signatures on lines of credit in an Arizona bank.

Kenner, a former college hockey player from Buffalo who describes himself as a financial adviser and a “lifestyle coach,” entered finance in the late 1990s. Within a few years he had built up a client list that included former Ranger and Islander Bryan Berard, former Islander Michael Peca, former Ranger Mattias Norstrom, Jere Lehtinen of the Dallas Stars and NHL journeymen Glen Murray and Jozef Stumpel. Several former policemen from New York also trusted Kenner and Constantine with their savings and retirement funds.

Not long after the Daily News first reported on irregularities in the investments in 2009, two of Kenner and Constantine’s investors — Berard and onetime New York City and Long Island cop John Kaiser — began poring through documents and questioning fellow investors, building the foundation of a case that soon caught the interest of the FBI and IRS and U.S. Attorneys from the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

Kenner is accused of falsely promising his investors equity in Diamanté, a new Cabo San Lucas golf development that became one of the most acclaimed golf destinations in North America. Diamanté is paired with a neighboring course that recently opened, El Cardinale, which was designed by Tiger Woods.

Soon after the Daily News began reporting on the disappearance of the hockey millions in 2009, Kenner and Constantine instigated litigation against Diamanté’s founding developer and Kenner’s former partner, Ken Jowdy, portraying Jowdy as the culprit in the mismanagement of their funds.

According to court records and interviews with parties involved, the men collected millions from the players and others, amassing a “global settlement fund” meant to wage a legal battle against Jowdy and wrest control of Diamanté from Jowdy.

Jowdy, who split with Kenner in late 2007-08 and has spent the last seven years constructing and developing Diamanté even as he fought the myriad of legal claims brought against him by Kenner, began providing the government with documents and information within days of the start of the government’s investigation in 2009.

Jowdy figures to become a key witness in the trial. Kenner’s attorney, Richard Haley, told Bianco on Wednesday he plans to call Jowdy to the stand if the prosecution team doesn’t do so itself.

Haley expressed concern that Jowdy resides in Mexico and the defense will have trouble getting him to Long Island to testify.

“Believe me, he will be here,” Bianco said.