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-19 relief fund scam, with the ill-gotten gains partially invested 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 Queens-based autoparts and recycling business, 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-19 relief funds, including Bruce Choi, who obtained $2 million in pandemic-related business loans for non-existent companies and used the money to buy cryptocurrency. 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 headed the Gambino crime family, earning an estimated $500 million annually from various illicit activities, including extortion, illegal gambling, and stock fraud, before being convicted and sentenced to prison, where he died of cancer at the age of 61.