Carmine Agnello, grandson of infamous mob boss John Gotti, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in a $1.1 million COVID-19 relief fund scam, with the proceeds partially used to invest in cryptocurrency. According to the Department of Justice, Agnello fraudulently obtained multiple disaster relief loans from the Small Business Administration and diverted the funds for personal use, including investing approximately $420,000 in a cryptocurrency business. The scheme involved submitting false information to the SBA between April 2020 and November 2021, claiming the funds were for employee salaries and business operations at his autoparts and recycling business in Queens.
US Attorney Joseph Nocella stated that Agnello '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-19 relief fund, with statistics from the US Government Accountability Office indicating that up to 15% of the total funds were lost to scams. Agnello's grandfather, John Gotti, was a notorious figure who headed the Gambino crime family and was eventually found guilty on 13 criminal counts, dying in federal prison in 2002.