DOJ Sentences Gambino Crime Family Member for Funneling COVID Relief Into Crypto
A federal choose sentenced Carmine Agnello, grandson of late Gambino crime boss John Gotti, to fifteen months in jail for siphoning over $1 million in COVID-19 aid funds. He diverted $420,000 of the haul right into a cryptocurrency enterprise.
Judge Nusrat Choudhury delivered the sentence on April 20 in federal court docket on Long Island. Prosecutors had initially sought 33 to 41 months.
How Pandemic Loans Became a Crypto Slush Fund
Agnello pleaded responsible in September 2024 to a single depend of wire fraud. Between April 2020 and November 2021, he filed a minimum of three fraudulent functions below the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, amassing $1.1 million.
The loans have been tied to Crown Auto Parts & Recycling LLC, an organization that had already ceased operations earlier than Agnello secured a lot of the funds. He falsified worker counts, concealed prior convictions, and misrepresented how the cash can be used.
Of the whole, $420,000 was invested instantly in a crypto venture. The case provides to a rising checklist of pandemic-era fraud schemes that funneled stolen authorities help into digital property.
Restitution and What Comes Next
Beyond jail time, Choudhury ordered Agnello to repay $1,268,302, carry out 100 hours of neighborhood service, and endure psychological well being therapy for playing habit.
He will serve two years of supervised launch after incarceration. Agnello should report back to jail by July 20.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. condemned the scheme in a public assertion.
“During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the defendant shamefully lined his personal pockets with authorities and taxpayers’ {dollars}” he stated.
The SBA’s inspector basic has flagged EIDL fraud as a persistent vulnerability, with billions in pandemic loans nonetheless below assessment.
Whether stricter controls will stem future circumstances involving crypto stays an open query.
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