Carmine Agnello, grandson of the notorious 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 for cryptocurrency investments, according to the Department of Justice. The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York stated that Agnello fraudulently obtained multiple disaster relief loans from the Small Business Administration and diverted the proceeds for personal use, including investing approximately $420,000 in a cryptocurrency venture.
Between April 2020 and November 2021, Agnello submitted false information to the SBA, claiming the funds were for his autoparts and recycling business in Queens, including employee salaries. 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 isolated, as numerous 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 the US Government Accountability Office, an estimated $135 billion, or up to 15% of the total Covid relief funds, was lost to scams.
Agnello's grandfather, John Gotti, was a powerful figure in organized crime, earning an estimated $500 million annually from various illicit ventures, including extortion, gambling, and stock fraud, before being sentenced to federal prison in 1992, where he died of cancer at the age of 61.