Grandson of deceased Gambino Boss pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud
The grandson of John Gotti, the infamous former boss of the Gambino crime family, pleaded guilty on Thursday to fraudulently collecting more than $1 million in Covid disaster relief loans, much of which he invested in cryptocurrency.
The grandson, Carmine G. Agnello Jr., 38, was arraigned on Thursday in a federal courthouse in Central Islip, Long Island, on charges of wire fraud. Mr. Agnello faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $2.2 million.
Breon S. Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement that Mr. Agnello had “shamefully” used the pandemic “as an opportunity to line his pockets.”
On Thursday, Mr. Agnello appeared alert and solemn as he entered his plea in court, answering the judge in one-word answers. He stood beside his lawyer, James R. Froccaro Jr., wearing a blue checkered blazer and a white silk pocket square. His hair was pulled back in a bun, and he had a fading tan. He appeared anxious, until his mother, Victoria Gotti, arrived in court.
Ms. Gotti sat behind her son in the gallery, wearing knee-high patent leather boots and carrying a Louis Vuitton bag. At one point, she wiped tears from her eyes. While being questioned by the judge, Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, about the bond, Ms. Gotti described her son as “my song.”
After the proceedings, Mr. Agnello left the federal courthouse under a cloudy sky, declining to speak with reporters before driving off in a Mercedes Maybach.
Mr. Agnello’s grandfather, who died in 2002, seized control of the Gambino family in a murderous coup and went on to run the organization through the late 1980s, when it was the nation’s most powerful crime ring.
Mr. Agnello’s mother, a novelist and a former columnist for The New York Post, married his father, Carmine "the Bull" Agnello, another Gambino family mobster, in 1984. The pair divorced in the early 2000s, not long after the elder Mr. Agnello had been sentenced to prison.
A former Gambino family associate reportedly testified in 2007 that about three decades earlier, Mr. Gotti had ordered him to wound Mr. Agnello after learning that Mr. Agnello had beaten up his daughter; the associate said he shot him in the rear. Ms. Gotti called the accusation a lie.
The junior Mr. Agnello starred alongside his mother and his two brothers, Frank and John, in “Growing Up Gotti,” a reality television show showcasing their Long Island mansion, its marble-and-leopard-skin décor and their unique family life. The show ran for three seasons on A&E, starting in 2004, before it was canceled.
The charges against Mr. Agnello concern a scheme that began in April 2020, when he fraudulently applied for at least three loans through a Covid-era relief program that provided loans for small businesses affected by the pandemic. Mr. Agnello applied on behalf of Crown Auto Parts & Recycling L.L.C., a Queens-based business he operated.
In order to get the loans, prosecutors say, Mr. Agnello submitted documents with false information, including his intended use for the loans. He also submitted a statement saying that he did not have a criminal record, despite charges against him from an earlier case.
Between April 2020 and November 2021, prosecutors say, Mr. Agnello stole $1.1 million in relief funds from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which he used to line his pockets — for example, by investing about $420,000 in a cryptocurrency business.
He is due back in court for his sentencing on May 7.
The charges are not Mr. Agnello’s first brush with law enforcement officials.
In 2018, Mr. Agnello was charged with operating an unlicensed scrapyard in Queens and falsifying business records, according to news reports. In that case, Mr. Agnello was accused of crushing hundreds of vehicles at his business, LSM Auto Parts & Recycling, with no license to do so. Mr. Agnello pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and served no prison time for the charges.
This July, Mr. Agnello’s business agreed to pay at least $210,000 in fines and clean up toxic fluids that had leaked out of the business's scrap yard in Queens, according to a settlement announced by the New York attorney general, Letitia James.
But scrapyard schemes, it seems, are something of a family trait.
In January 2000, Mr. Agnello’s father was indicted on federal charges that he had used strong-arm tactics to dominate a lucrative scrap-metal industry in the Willets Point neighborhood of Queens. The senior Mr. Agnello, who prosecutors said ran the Gambino family’s car theft ring, was charged after threatening a rival scrap company in Queens that was actually run by the Police Department as part of a sting operation.
He later pleaded guilty to federal racketeering and tax charges and was sentenced in October 2001 to nine years in prison.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/26/nyregion/gotti-grandson-guilty-plea.html
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