Gotti grandson sentenced to 15 months for COVID relief scam
John Gotti’s grandson was hit with a 15-month federal prison sentence Monday for running a million-dollar COVID relief scam — a break from the three-year stint he was facing.
Carmine Agnello, 39, tried to dodge serious prison time on the 2024 fraud conviction for months, claiming his ailing mother, Victoria Gotti, would die without his kidney – and said he couldn’t pull off the procedure from inside a federal lockup.
Judge Nusrat Choudhury met him halfway, hitting the Teflon Don’s grandson with a lighter sentence and ordering him to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution — but opting against the max.
Carmine Agnello, John Gotti’s grandson, arriving at Federal Court in Central Islip on April 20, 2026. Agnello was hit with a 15-month federal prison sentence on Monday.
Agnello’s lawyers had pleaded for him to go free, arguing it was necessary to donate a kidney to his ailing mother, Victoria Gotti.Agnello’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said his client’s link to the notorious Gambino boss doomed him from the start.
“There was really no male role models for Carmine — they were all in jail,” he told the judge. “He tried to live up to the family name. He didn’t have a childhood that would have led to anywhere besides here.”
Agnello grew up in the shadow of the mob, with 15 relatives, including his famous granddad, spending time in prison — and was hurled into the spotlight as a kid in his mom’s 2004 reality TV show, “Growing Up Gotti.”
Agnello admitted in 2024 that he pocketed $1.1 million in COVID relief funds that were meant to help struggling businesses – and used the cash to invest in cryptocurrency.
The scam skimmed Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the Small Business Administration, that was meant to help companies bounce back from the pandemic shutdown.
“During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the defendant shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayer dollars, which he must repay as part of today’s sentence,” said Joseph Nocella, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Federal prosecutor Charles Kelly said in court that the case had nothing to do with Agnello’s notorious grandfather.
“This case is not about John Gotti,” he said. “It’s about Carmine Agnello. At some point, his actions must become his own.”
Agnello’s lawyers argued that a hefty prison sentence would doom his 63-year-old mom, who is battling end-stage renal disease, has no chance without the procedure..
“He is giving me the GIFT OF LIFE,” the mob princess wrote to the judge last month, pleading for her grandson to be cut loose.
On Monday, Lichtman said her condition had improved, which would allow the transplant to be delayed as long as a year.
Federal prosecutors had repeatedly countered that Agnello could give up the kidney behind bars, and said the situation didn’t warrant a break on prison time.
John Gotti, a notorious Gambino crime family boss, was convicted of racketeering in 1992 and died behind bars in 2002 after being diagnosed with throat cancer.
https://nypost.com/2026/04/20/us-news/john-gottis-grandson-learns-fate-in-covid-fraud-case-after-begging-to-stay-free-to-donate-kidney-to-mom/
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