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 funding scam, with the proceeds partly used to invest in cryptocurrency, according to the Department of Justice. In a statement released on Monday, the US Attorney's Eastern District of New York office revealed that Agnello had fraudulently obtained multiple disaster relief loans from the government's Small Business Administration and used the funds for personal gain, including investing around $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 autoparts and recycling business in Queens, including employee salaries. The US Attorney, Joseph Nocella, stated that Agnello 'shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayers' dollars' during the pandemic. Agnello is required to turn himself in for imprisonment on July 1 and must repay the funds as part of his sentence. This case is not isolated, as several individuals have been found guilty of defrauding the government's Covid relief fund, including Bruce Choi, who obtained $2 million in pandemic-related business loans for non-existent companies, and David T.
Hines, who fraudulently obtained $3.9 million. 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 authorities estimating his annual earnings to be around $500 million from various ventures, including extortion, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and stock fraud.