Carmine Agnello, grandson of the notorious mob boss John Gotti, has received a 15-month prison sentence for his role in a Covid-19 relief fund scam, in which he fraudulently obtained $1.1 million from the US government's Small Business Administration and invested a substantial amount in cryptocurrency, according to the Department of Justice. A statement from the US Attorney's Eastern District of New York office revealed that Agnello secured multiple disaster relief loans by submitting false information between April 2020 and November 2021, claiming the funds were intended for his autoparts and recycling business in Queens, including employee salaries. It was discovered that Agnello diverted approximately $420,000 of the proceeds for personal use, including investments in a cryptocurrency business. Agnello is scheduled to begin his prison term on July 1.
US Attorney Joseph Nocella condemned Agnello's actions, stating that he 'shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayers' dollars' during the Covid-19 pandemic. The US Postal Inspection Service's New York Division Inspector in Charge, Larco-Ward, also criticized Agnello's actions, saying that he '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 found guilty of defrauding the government's Covid relief fund. For example, Bruce Choi was found guilty of illegally obtaining $2 million in pandemic-related business loans for non-existent companies and using the funds to purchase cryptocurrency. According to statistics from the US Government Accountability Office, an estimated $135 billion, or approximately 15% of the total Covid-19 relief funds, was lost to scams. Agnello's grandfather, John Gotti, was a notorious figure who exerted power through brutal violence and was known for his high-profile lifestyle.
He was the head of the Gambino crime family, earning an estimated $500 million annually from various ventures, including extortion, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and stock fraud. In 1992, Gotti was convicted on 13 criminal counts and sentenced to federal prison, where he died of cancer at the age of 61.