Carmine Agnello, grandson of the notorious John Gotti, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison 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 approximately half of it in cryptocurrency ventures, according to the Department of Justice. A statement from the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York revealed that Agnello had submitted false information to secure multiple disaster relief loans, claiming the funds were for his Queens-based autoparts and recycling business, including employee salaries.
Instead, Agnello used around $420,000 of the proceeds to invest in a cryptocurrency business, the attorney's office said. Agnello, who is set to begin his prison sentence on July 1, had submitted the false claims between April 2020 and November 2021. US Attorney Joseph Nocella condemned Agnello's actions, stating that he had 'shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayers' dollars' during the height of the pandemic. The US Postal Inspection Service also criticized Agnello's actions, with Inspector in Charge Larco-Ward noting that he had 'defrauded a program designed to assist businesses and employees during the pandemic'.
Agnello's case is not an isolated incident, as numerous individuals have been caught defrauding the government's Covid relief fund. According to 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 notorious figure who exerted power through brutal violence and amassed a significant fortune through various illicit ventures, including extortion, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and stock fraud.
In 1992, Gotti was found guilty on 13 criminal counts and sentenced to federal prison, where he died of cancer at the age of 61.