Carmine Agnello, the grandson of infamous mob boss John Gotti, has received a 15-month prison sentence 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. According to the Department of Justice, Agnello used a substantial portion of these funds to invest in cryptocurrency businesses. The US Attorney's Eastern District of New York office disclosed that Agnello submitted false information to secure multiple disaster relief loans, claiming the funds were intended for his autoparts and recycling business in Queens, including employee salaries.
However, he diverted approximately $420,000 of the proceeds to invest in a cryptocurrency business. The fraud occurred between April 2020 and November 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Agnello will begin his prison term on July 1.
US Attorney Joseph Nocella stated that Agnello 'shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayers' dollars' and must repay the funds as part of his sentence. Agnello's case is not an isolated incident, as numerous individuals have been caught defrauding the government's COVID-19 relief program, including Bruce Choi, who obtained $2 million in pandemic-related business loans to purchase cryptocurrency, and David T. Hines, who fraudulently obtained $3.9 million and used some of the 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, has been lost to scams.
Agnello's grandfather, John Gotti, was a notorious figure known for his brutal violence and extensive criminal empire, which included extorting unions, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and stock fraud, and was estimated to have earned him around $500 million annually. Gotti was convicted on 13 criminal counts in 1992 and died in federal prison at the age of 61.