Carmine Agnello, the grandson of notorious mob boss John Gotti, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in defrauding the US government's Covid-19 relief funding system of $1.1 million, with at least half of the funds invested in cryptocurrency, according to the Department of Justice. In a statement released on Monday, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York revealed that Agnello had fraudulently obtained multiple disaster relief loans from the Small Business Administration and used the funds for personal gain, including investing approximately $420,000 in a cryptocurrency business. Between April 2020 and November 2021, Agnello submitted false information to the SBA, claiming the proceeds were for his autoparts and recycling business in Queens, including employee salaries. The US Attorney, Joseph Nocella, stated that 'during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the defendant shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayers' dollars, which he must repay as part of today's sentence.' The US Postal Inspection Service's New York Division Inspector in Charge, Larco-Ward, added that 'Mr.
Agnello defrauded a program designed to assist businesses and employees during the pandemic.' Agnello's case is not an isolated incident, as several individuals have been caught defrauding the government's Covid relief fund, including Bruce Choi, who illegally obtained $2 million in pandemic-related business loans to buy cryptocurrency, and David T. Hines, who fraudulently obtained $3.9 million and used some of the proceeds to purchase a Lamborghini. According to statistics from the US Government Accountability Office, an estimated $135 billion, or up to 15% of the total funds, was lost to scams related to Covid-19 relief.
Agnello's grandfather, John Gotti, was a notorious figure who exerted power through brutal violence and was eventually found guilty on 13 criminal counts, sentenced to federal prison, where he died of cancer at the age of 61.