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 relief funding scam, with proceeds partly used for cryptocurrency investments, according to the Department of Justice. In a statement released by the US Attorney's Eastern District of New York office, it was revealed that Agnello secured multiple disaster relief loans from the Small Business Administration by submitting false information, claiming the funds were for his autoparts and recycling business in Queens. Instead, he diverted approximately $420,000 to a cryptocurrency business. The fraud occurred between April 2020 and November 2021, with Agnello set to begin his sentence on July 1.
US Attorney Joseph Nocella condemned Agnello's actions, stating that he 'shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayers' dollars' during the pandemic. The case is not an isolated incident, as numerous individuals have been caught defrauding the government's Covid relief fund, including Bruce Choi, who obtained $2 million in pandemic-related business loans for non-existent companies to buy cryptocurrency, and David T. Hines, who fraudulently obtained $3.9 million and used some of the funds to purchase a Lamborghini.
According to the US Government Accountability Office, an estimated $135 billion, or up to 15% of the total Covid relief funds, was lost to scams. Agnello's grandfather, John Gotti, was a powerful figure in organized crime, earning an estimated $500 million annually from various illicit activities before being convicted and sentenced to federal prison, where he died of cancer at the age of 61.