Carmine Agnello, the grandson of notorious mob boss John Gotti, has received a 15-month prison sentence for his role in a $1.1 million COVID-19 relief fund scam, with the illicitly obtained funds partly used to invest 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 had fraudulently secured multiple disaster relief loans from the Small Business Administration, diverting the proceeds for personal use, including a $420,000 investment in a cryptocurrency business. Between April 2020 and November 2021, Agnello submitted false information to the SBA, claiming the funds were for his Queens-based autoparts and recycling business, including employee salaries.
'During the COVID-19 pandemic, the defendant disgracefully used government and taxpayer funds for personal gain, which he must now repay as part of his sentence,' said United States Attorney Joseph Nocella. Agnello's case is not an isolated incident, as numerous individuals have been caught defrauding the government's COVID-19 relief funds, with some using the illicit funds to purchase cryptocurrency or luxury items.
According to the US Government Accountability Office, an estimated $135 billion, or approximately 15% of the total COVID-19 relief funds, was lost to scams. Agnello's grandfather, John Gotti, was a powerful mob boss who accumulated an estimated $500 million annually from various illicit ventures, including extortion, loan-sharking, and stock fraud, before being convicted and sentenced to federal prison, where he died of cancer at the age of 61.