Listen to this articleCarmine G. Agnello, grandson of the late reputed mob boss John Gotti, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the federal courthouse in Central Islip Thursday.
The fraud was in connection with Agnello receiving about $1.1 million in small business loans under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program created to ease business impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York.
Agnello pleaded guilty in front of Judge Nusrat Choudhary. When sentenced, Agnello, who lives in Smithtown, faces up to 30 years in prison, as well as restitution totaling more than $940,000 and a fine of up to $2.2 million, according to the statement.
“The defendant shamefully used the public health and economic crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to line his pockets with stolen funds,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in the statement. “The reality is, those who engaged in blatant theft of taxpayer dollars intended to assist legitimate businesses and their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic should know that despite the passage of time, there is no free pass for their crimes and they will be vigorously prosecuted by the office.”
Between April 2020 and Nov. 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Agnello fraudulently applied for, and received, at least three EIDLP loans totaling about $1.1 million that he submitted on behalf of Crown Auto Parts & Recycling, LLC (Crown), a Jamaica, Queens-based business that he operated, according to the court filings. Agnello submitted documentation to the Small Business Administration and financial institution responsible for disbursing the funds, that falsely claimed he had no criminal record when, in reality, he had a 2018 misdemeanor conviction.
In July 2018, Agnello was arrested for crushing cars without a license and falsifying business records. The charge was later reduced to a misdemeanor, and he was fined $1,000 and forced to pay back $4,605 in ill-gotten gains.
In the curretn case, Agnello also submitted false information about the number of employees that worked for Crown and the intended use of the EIDLP loan proceeds. Instead of using the funds for disaster relief, Agnello diverted them for his personal use, including by investing some $420,000 in a cryptocurrency business, according to court documents.
“Agnello allegedly used over $1 million in COVID relief funds for his own financial gain. Government money that was intended to assist struggling businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Daniel Brubaker, inspector in charge, United States Postal Inspection Service, New York division, said in the statement. “Postal Inspectors will relentlessly pursue any individuals who scheme to defraud the government and steal taxpayer funds. We, along with our law enforcements partners, will not end this pursuit of justice until those who take advantage of the U.S. Mail to commit fraud are held fully accountable. Today’s guilty plea is proof of that fact. I would like to thank our partners in Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, for their work on this investigation.”
Agnello, who was represented by attorney James Froccaro, was released on a $500,000 bond. He could not be reached for comment.
Agnello also ran afoul of the law in June, when LSM Auto Parts & Recycling, a company that lists him as one of the owners, agreed to pay $210,000 in fines and clean up hazardous automobile fluids from the grounds of its Jamaica scrap yard as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the New York State Attorney General’s office in 2022.
Agnello might be best known for starring along with his mother Victoria Gotti and his brothers Frank and John in his family’s reality TV series “Growing Up Gotti,” which ran on the A&E network from August 2004 through Dec. 2005. He also appeared in the show’s 2014 anniversary special “Growing Up Gotti: Ten Years Later.”