Grandson of Infamous Mob Boss John Gotti Sentenced to Prison for $1.1 Million Covid Relief Scam Involving Crypto

Carmine Agnello, grandson of the infamous John Gotti, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in a $1.1 million Covid-19 relief fund scam, with at least half of the funds used to invest in cryptocurrency, according to the Department of Justice. The US Attorney's Eastern District of New York office revealed that Agnello secured multiple disaster relief loans from the Small Business Administration by submitting false information between April 2020 and November 2021. He claimed the funds were for his autoparts and recycling business in Queens, including employee salaries, but instead used approximately $420,000 for personal cryptocurrency investments. Agnello is set to begin his prison term on July 1. The case is part of a larger issue of Covid-19 relief fund fraud, with statistics from the US Government Accountability Office indicating that up to 15% of the total relief funds, roughly $135 billion, were lost to scams. Agnello's sentence includes repayment of the defrauded amount, as stated by United States Attorney Joseph Nocella, who criticized Agnello for 'shamefully lining his own pockets with government and taxpayers' dollars' during the pandemic.