Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Gambino gangster who claims hes turned his life around gets off with just probation


A Gambino crime associate, who claims he’s a new man now thanks to Tony Soprano-style psychiatric treatment, got off with just probation Friday for racketeering and extortion.

Anthony Scibelli was a troubled mobster, given to fits of rage, screaming and name-dropping of powerful gangsters — bad conduct that could have landed him in prison for two years.

Image
Gambino associate Anthony Scibelli leaving Brooklyn Federal Court after he was sentenced to no jail time for extortion

Prosecutors charged Scibelli was a “sidekick and subordinate” of Gambino soldier Vincent Dragonetti, but defense lawyer Gerald Shargel attributed his client’s anti-social behavior to a lifelong struggle with bipolar, anxiety and panic disorders.

But Scibelli, 42, said therapy and medication have turned his life around.

Now instead of hanging out with mobsters, he makes breakfast for his young children in the morning and puts them to bed at night, Scibelli said.

“I’m not the same person,” he said. “I would never allow myself to act like that anymore. I have cut off all connections to people (in the racketeering indictment).”

“I have become a better person,” Scibelli said. “Although I’m a work in progress, I would never go back.”

He even apologized to the Brooklyn development company Sitt Asset Management, against whom he pleaded guilty to extorting a $55,000 payment in a 2007 business dispute. He also extorted $10,000 on top of the money another contractor owed him, court papers say.

An informant had secretly taped Scibelli’s tough talk. “Does he (the person who crossed us) know what the f--k we are capable of?” Scibelli ranted, according to a transcript. “You don’t see the newspapers every day? What do they think, that this is make-believe?”

Scibelli also threatened to convene a sit-down with capo Nicholas Corozzo to settle the beef, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitman Knapp.

The judge could have given Scibelli up to two years in prison, but she expressed concern that incarceration would jeopardize the jobs of 200 employees at his firm.

Instead, she ordered him to continue his mental health treatment.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gambino-associate-avoids-jail-time-article-1.1309389


0 comments:

Post a Comment