Carmine Agnello, the grandson of notorious mob boss John Gotti, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in a Covid relief funding scam, in which he defrauded the US government of $1.1 million and invested a substantial amount in cryptocurrency, according to the Department of Justice. The US Attorney's Eastern District of New York office revealed that Agnello had fraudulently obtained multiple disaster relief loans from the Small Business Administration and used the funds for personal gain, including investing approximately $420,000 in a cryptocurrency business.
Between April 2020 and November 2021, Agnello submitted false information to the SBA, claiming the proceeds were for his autoparts and recycling business in Queens, including employee salaries. The fraudster is set to begin his prison sentence on July 1. 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 relief fund, including Bruce Choi, who illegally obtained $2 million in pandemic-related business loans to buy cryptocurrency, and David T. Hines, who fraudulently obtained $3.9 million and used some of the proceeds to purchase a Lamborghini. 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 related to Covid relief.
Agnello's grandfather, John Gotti, was a powerful figure who exerted control through brutal violence and amassed a significant fortune through various illicit ventures, including extortion, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and stock fraud, before being found guilty on 13 criminal counts and sentenced to federal prison, where he died of cancer at the age of 61.