Gambino family rat linked to John Gotti busted for fraud and theft in Florida
A Mafia snitch who went down on federal racketeering and fraud charges years ago in Brooklyn now faces legal troubles in Florida, where cops say he stole a check from his lawyer and cashed it.
Lewis Kasman, better known as John Gotti’s turncoat “adopted son,” was arrested last month in West Palm Beach, Fla., for swiping $5,300 from his very own lawyer.
The 58-year-old, who moved to South Florida after flipping on the mob, avoided doing jail time in New York after he ratted out much of the Gambino crime family -- including the son of the late “Dapper Don,” John A. "Junior" Gotti.
Kasman faces felony grand theft and fraud charges after cops discovered he took the check in November from the Coconut Creek office of Nicholas Steffens and cashed it in at a Boca Raton bank.
“Mr. Kasman is specifically known to me due to the fact that he had reported an assault case to me in September of 2014 and had previously pled guilty in the federal system to money laundering charges,” a Palm County Sheriff’s Office detective wrote in an arrest report obtained by the Daily News.
But Kasman said the charges are bunk.
"I'm good. Charges will be dropped. False police report filed by party," he said in a note to The News. "No further comment. I'm good!"
Lewis Kasman, spoke to the media June 12, 2002, after John Gotti died in a Missouri federal prison.
He later blamed the lawyer, who he claims borrowed $4,200 from him and tried to back out of paying. Kasman claims Steffens wrote him a check , and then called after it was deposited to say he’d changed his mind.
"Then he goes an files a false police report," Kasman told the News in an email. "No deed goes unpunished."
Video images from the bank show Kasman handing over the stolen check to a teller, while Steffens told police his client, whom he represented in a divorce, had been in his office the same day.
A Palm Beach County Sheriff's detective busted Kasman shortly after.
"The detective said he knew who I was," Kasman told the News. "He said I was Gotti's adopted son. The detective knew exactly who I was and he was loving it."
When contacted by the website Gossip Extra, which first reported the arrest, Kasman said he hadn’t been busted for the crime. He fessed up to the arrest the next day.
Reputed mob boss John Gotti never knew of Kasman's betrayal, but the rat helped the government convicted other members of the Gambino crime family. Gotti is shown here during his trial in January 1990.
“I’ve been helping Nicholas out with all kinds of bills, and when someone borrows money, that person has (to) pay the loan back,” he told the site.
Kasman fled to Boca Raton under the witness protection program in the early 2000s after he ratted out several mob figures. But he was outed when his ex-wife filed for divorce, according to Gossip Extra.
Despite the theft charge, Kasman lives large in a $900,000 mansion in Delray Beach, the site reported.
During his time as an informant, Kasman spent years making some $144,000 annually from the government. The millionaire garment executive helped the Gambino Family keep the books.
He got off on just probation during a Sept. 2010 sentencing on the racketeering charge that could have left him locked up for 11 years.
"He's a piece of s---," Gotti's eldest daughter, Angela, told the News at the time. "Somebody's got all my father's money. He [Kasman] was the one holding it."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/mob-rat-lewis-kasman-busted-felony-charges-florida-article-1.2111401
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