BY MELISSA GRACE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Papa Smurf is broke – and behind bars.

Lawyer Stuart Ross made millions introducing the bizarre blue Smurf cartoon characters to the U.S. in the 1980s. Now he stands accused in a twisted plot to extort as much as $11 million from his rich son-in-law, Blackstone Group exec David Blitzer – and unable to make his $200,000 bail.

“He’s not in a position to afford bail like that,” Ross’ lawyer Matthew Myers said outside a Manhattan courtroom yesterday.

“He made some bad investments,” Myers said.

Ross, 73, concocted a scheme that would make the evil Smurf nemesis Gargamel blush.

He threatened to smear Blitzer’s reputation – and drag his good name through the mud.

Ross even went after his own daughter, Allison Blitzer, court papers say. At one point, Ross told the then-pregnant woman he hoped her child died – and that her gravestone “should be carved with a vile obscenity.”

The attempt to bilk Blitzer fell apart two years ago as the threats escalated – and when law enforcement was called in.

Ross and his co-defendant Stuart Jackson, his former lawyer, were indicted in 2008 for grand larceny and attempted grand larceny .

“These threats escalated to a point where Ross, through his attorney, defendant Jackson, told Blitzer’s attorney, Roger Stavis, that for $5.5 million, Ross would not try to visit his daughter or grandchildren and would stop harassing Blitzer and contacting his business,” State Supreme Court Judge Bonnie Wittner wrote in legal papers.

Other court documents mentioned figures as high as $11 million coming from Jackson.

At yesterday’s bail proceeding, Ross – who is essentially homeless and on the brink of divorce – laid out a sob story about his failing health.

“I have leukemia,” he said. “Almost every month I was in the hospital.” He also announced plans to represent himself at trial when a date is set at a hearing scheduled for June 28.

“You want to represent yourself,” Wittner told him. “I know you’re a lawyer. You know the risks.”

Ross once owned the North American rights to the Smurfs, investing in the blue cartoon figures from France in 1976, before they hit it big.

The Smurfs are bound for a new round of popularity: A live action movie starring Neil Patrick Harris, Katy Perry, Hank Azariaand Alan Cumming is due out next year.

Written by Melissa Grace for the New York Daily News – mgrace@nydailynews.com

Attorney for the defense: Matthew D. Myers

Background Check At Time of Arrest Reveals Defendant Wanted On Rape Charges in Pennsylvania

DISTRICT ATTORNEY
QUEENS COUNTY
125-01 QUEENS BOULEVARD
KEW GARDENS, NEW YORK 11415-1568
718-286-6000

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a former mortgage company employee whose civil lawsuit against the New York City Transit Authority was placed on hold earlier this year after the judge declared a mistrial and referred the matter to the District Attorney’s office for possible prosecution for fraud has, in fact, been charged with submitting false claims to the Transit Authority for which he received more than $16,000 in lost wages following a bus accident. In addition, while being processed prior to his arraignment, it was revealed that the defendant is wanted on a Pennsylvania warrant for an alleged 2004 rape.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant is accused of filing a false claim with the New York City Transit Authority for wages he said he lost after being unable to work in the aftermath of a bus accident. Claims like those allegedly filed in this case take money out of the pockets of all New Yorkers. While allegedly stealing from this agency is bad enough, it turns out that a warrant had been issued for the defendant who is wanted for the alleged rape of a minor in Pennsylvania.”

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By LUKAS I. ALPERT
Posted: 5:08 am
August 23, 2008

He was more Gargamel than Papa Smurf.

The man who helped bring the Smurfs to America was busted yesterday for allegedly trying to shake down his son-in-law – a deep-pocketed executive at a top private equity firm – for $11 million, authorities said.

Stuart Ross, 71, of Aventura, Fla., was charged with unleashing a campaign of harassment against his son-in-law David Blitzer, a senior managing director at the Blackstone Group, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced.

Ross’s 79-year-old New York attorney, Stuart Jackson, was also charged with attempted grand larceny for his role in the scheme. Both face up to seven years in prison.

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By Laura Italiano

Between his cashmere coats, his perfect French accent and his claims of big-bucks dealings with John Travolta and Jodie Foster, Alexis Quinlin was quite the convincing businessman – taking some 22 investors into handing him nearly $4 million over five years.

But every one of these deals was a swindle, Manhattan prosecutors said yesterday, as Quinlin was thrown in jail on grand larceny charges.

Quinlin, 46, of SoHo, claimed that he exported DVD players and flat-screen TVs to Europe at astounding profit but needed money from investors to finance these transactions, prosecutors said.

To throw some extra razzle-dazzle into his sales pitch, he sometimes pretended to be famous French photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino, prosecutors said.

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