Ramona Rizzo from Mob Wives not expected to get jewelry seized by the feds back

Ramona Rizzo from Mob Wives not expected to get jewelry seized by the feds back

  March 03, 2019    Dapper_Don

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The battle of the Mafia bling is almost over — with a silver lining unlikely for ex-“Mob Wives” star Ramona Rizzo.

The Staten Islander, after a nearly eight-year legal fight, stands on the verge of defeat in her effort to recover dozens of pieces of jewelry seized when her mobbed-up fiancé was busted as a coke dealer.

The estimated value of the gaudy collection: $184,000, wholesale.

“The court respectfully recommends that the government’s motion to dismiss (Rizzo’s claim) be granted in its entirety,” wrote Brooklyn Federal Magistrate Cheryl L. Pollak in a 30-page court filing last month.

The final decision rests with Brooklyn Federal Judge Margo Brodie, who can accept, reject or modify the magistrate’s recommendation.

Court documents detailing the sparklers seized by Drug Enforcement Administration agents back in August 2011 made the raid on Gambino family soldier Joseph Sclafani’s Staten Island home sound more like a Fifth Ave. shopping spree.

Authorities stated that all the jewelry was discovered in Joseph Sclafani’s bedroom after his arrest. The 41-year-old, known as "Joey Boy," pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine in 2013 and was sentenced to 15 years.

An 18-karat gold Rolex watch. Two 18-karat gold Cartier love bracelets. Three 18-karat white gold flower bracelets — with diamonds. Five sets of diamond earrings.

There were stainless steel cuff links, and a “white gold evil eye” bracelet, and a gold chain with a St. Christopher medal.

The last item was supposedly a keepsake given to Rizzo from her notorious grandfather: Bonanno family mobster Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggiero — played by Al Pacino in the movie “Donnie Brasco.”

Ruggiero, who died in November 1994, became a mob pariah after vouching for FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone with his mob compatriots.

But all that glittered in Sclafani’s home was not gold. A Cartier Ballon Bleu watch was revealed as a knockoff and destroyed, the feds said in court papers.

All the legit items were auctioned off by the government in late 2015 and early 2016, according to a court filing by Michael Cooke, district asset forfeit coordinator for the U.S. Marshals Service in Brooklyn.

Authorities said all the jewelry was discovered in Sclafani’s bedroom after his arrest. The 41-year-old, known as “Joey Boy,” pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine in 2013 and was sentenced to 15 years.

Rizzo, along with Sclafani’s mother and sister, claimed in court papers filed in 2017 that many of the pricey items seized did not belong to her husband-to-be.

Instead, she claimed, “the majority … were NOT the property of Joseph Sclafani, but were in fact the personal property of the plaintiffs, which the agents conducting the search were well aware of.”

The beautiful bangles belonging to Rizzo, who appeared for two years on the mob reality show, were actually gifts given to her by her wealthy ex-husband Wael Al-Khatib, between 1995-2009, she claimed.

“The only reason these items were present in the Staten Island residence of Joseph Sclafani … was because Ms. Rizzo was in the process of moving in,” her court papers alleged.

The government, in previous court filings, noted that Rizzo and her co-plaintiffs repeatedly failed to file their claims in a timely fashion.

In a 2012 letter, the DEA additionally explained that the Sclafani investigation uncovered “probable cause to believe that illicit, drug-related funds were used to purchase the forfeited property.”

Sclafani was previously convicted of harboring the killer in the 1989 slaying of undercover DEA agent Everett Hatcher, and was wounded alongside the wanted Constabile "Gus" Farace when the suspect was killed — by a Mafia hit team dispensing some deadly street justice.