Carmine Agnello, the grandson of notorious mob boss John Gotti, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in a $1.1 million Covid relief fund scam, where he siphoned off government funds to invest in cryptocurrency, 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 by submitting false information, which he then used for personal gain, including investing approximately $420,000 in a cryptocurrency business.
The fraud occurred between April 2020 and November 2021, with Agnello falsely 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 an isolated incident, as numerous individuals have been caught defrauding the government's Covid relief fund, including Bruce Choi, who obtained $2 million in pandemic-related business loans for non-existent companies to buy cryptocurrency, and David T. Hines, who fraudulently obtained $3.9 million and used some of the funds 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, with his empire generating approximately $500 million annually from extortion, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and stock fraud, before his conviction and subsequent death in federal prison.