Carmine Agnello, the grandson of notorious mob boss 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 used a substantial portion to invest 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 submitted false information to secure multiple disaster relief loans, which he then diverted for personal use, including a $420,000 investment in a cryptocurrency business. The fraudulent activities took place 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 had 'shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayers' dollars' during the height of 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 illegally obtained $2 million in pandemic-related business loans to purchase cryptocurrency, and David T. Hines, who used $3.9 million in relief funds to buy a Lamborghini.
According to the US Government Accountability Office, an estimated $135 billion, or up to 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 amassed a fortune estimated to be around $500 million per year from various illicit ventures, including extortion, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and stock fraud.
He was eventually found guilty on 13 criminal counts in 1992 and died in federal prison at the age of 61.