Carmine Agnello, grandson of the notorious John Gotti, has received a 15-month prison sentence for his role in a $1.1 million Covid relief fund scam, with proceeds funneled into cryptocurrency investments, according to the Department of Justice. In a statement, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York revealed that Agnello secured multiple disaster relief loans from the Small Business Administration under false pretenses and diverted the funds for personal use, including a $420,000 investment in a cryptocurrency business. The fraud occurred between April 2020 and November 2021, with Agnello submitting false information to obtain the loans, claiming the funds were for his autoparts and recycling business in Queens.
US Attorney Joseph Nocella condemned Agnello's actions, stating that he 'shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayers' dollars' during the pandemic. Agnello's case is not an isolated incident, as numerous individuals have been caught defrauding the government's Covid relief fund, with statistics from the US Government Accountability Office indicating that up to 15% of the total funds were lost to scams, amounting to roughly $135 billion. Agnello's grandfather, John Gotti, was a powerful figure in organized crime, with a history of brutal violence and a lucrative empire that included extortion, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and stock fraud, before his conviction and death in federal prison.