Carmine Agnello, the grandson of notorious mob figure John Gotti, has received a 15-month prison sentence for his role in defrauding the US government's Covid-19 relief funding system of $1.1 million, with a substantial amount 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 utilized the funds for personal use, including investing approximately $420,000 in a cryptocurrency business. Between April 2020 and November 2021, Agnello submitted false information to the SBA, claiming the funds were for his Queens-based autoparts and recycling business, 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.' Agnello is scheduled to begin his prison term on July 1.
This case is not an isolated incident, as numerous individuals have been found guilty of defrauding the government's Covid relief fund, including Bruce Choi, who illegally obtained $2 million in pandemic-related business loans to purchase cryptocurrency, and David T. Hines, who fraudulently obtained $3.9 million and used some of the proceeds to buy 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. Agnello's grandfather, John Gotti, was a powerful figure in the Gambino crime family, with estimated annual earnings of $500 million from various ventures, including extortion, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and stock fraud.
He was found guilty on 13 criminal counts in 1992 and died in federal prison at the age of 61.