Judge sentences longtime Colombo mobster nicknamed Shrek and the Wig to over two years in prison

Judge sentences longtime Colombo mobster nicknamed Shrek and the Wig to over two years in prison

  May 14, 2022    Dapper_Don

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Despite a criminal history dating back nearly three decades, reputed Colombo crime family mobster Daniel Capaldo insisted he has turned over a new leaf.

“I’m done with the past,” the Staten Island resident told a social worker during a pre-sentencing evaluation earlier this year, according to court documents. “I can’t wait for it to be over. I just want to go back to work, come home to my family, do the right thing, and make my family proud of me.”

With the love and support of his kin, Capaldo, 57, is determined to walk the straight-and-narrow path and deserved to remain out of prison, wrote defense lawyer Peter J. Guadagnino in a pre-sentencing memo to the court.

A sentence of time served with three years’ supervised release was appropriate for the defendant, said the attorney.

Capaldo had previously pleaded guilty to two racketeering acts, which occurred in 2019 and involved or implied threats of violence.

“Mr. Capaldo has an extended loving family who is supportive and would guide him in living a law-abiding life,” Guadagnino wrote. “… This strong support makes it more likely than not that Mr. Capaldo will not commit further crimes.”

Brooklyn federal court Judge Brian M. Cogan disagreed.

On Wednesday, the judge sentenced Capaldo, known as “The Wig” and “Shrek,” to 27 months behind bars and two years’ supervised release.

The defendant is also subject to a $1,500 forfeiture judgment.

Federal guidelines had called for a sentencing range of 27 to 33 months.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors sought a sentence within that range, pointing to Capaldo’s criminal history, his mob ties and the nature of his crimes.

Sentencing guidelines are advisory, and judges are not bound by them. They can impose a harsher or less-severe sentence if they choose.

“Over a period of decades, the defendant has sustained several convictions in connection with his association with and/or membership in the Colombo crime family,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Geddes and Megan E. Farrell in a pre-sentencing memo. “After serving a lengthy term of incarcerations in the 1990s and 2000s, the defendant was released and rather than reject its criminal means, the defendant was formally inducted as a member of the crime family.”

“A sentence within the guidelines range will at least incapacitate the defendant, thereby protecting the public from further crimes he would otherwise commit during that period of time,” prosecutors said.

Capaldo has at least four prior felony convictions for offenses such as narcotics sale and possession and collecting an unlawful debt, said prosecutors.

In October 2019, Capaldo was among 20 suspects indicted in Brooklyn federal court on wide-ranging charges including racketeering, extortion, loansharking and stalking.

Seventeen defendants were Staten Islanders, and 11 of the suspects are members or associates of the Colombos, officials said.

One defendant was sentenced last year to probation for trying to fix an NCAA men’s college basketball game between Wagner College and St. John’s University in December 2018.

However, as it turned out, no money ever exchanged hands, said prosecutors.

Capaldo was not charged in that scheme.

Prosecutors said Capaldo reported to Joseph Amato Sr., a Colombo capo, and the highest-profile defendant among those arrested.

In November 2020, Capaldo resolved his case by pleading guilty in Brooklyn federal court to two racketeering acts: Extortion conspiracy and financing an extortionate extension of credit.

In the first instance, Capaldo and others relied “on their reputation as inducted members of the Colombo crime family” and threatened two men over an outstanding gambling debt, said prosecutors.

In the other case, Capaldo advanced money to Thomas Scorcia, a loanshark and fellow Colombo family member, said authorities.

Capaldo knew Scorcia was going to loan the money to a third party and violence would be used, if necessary, to collect the debt, authorities said.

Scorcia also was among the suspects arrested in October 2019 and was sentenced last year to 42 months in prison for racketeering.

Capaldo is now the last defendant to be sentenced in the case.

“It’s a guidelines sentence,” said Guadagnino, the defense lawyer. “The judge gave him the lower end based on his health issues. He’s just concentrating now on the future so that he can help out his family, his wife and daughter. That’s all he’s really worried about now.”

https://www.silive.com/crime-safety/2022/05/im-done-with-the-past-si-man-called-shrek-says-of-alleged-mob-ties-feds-disagree-judge-decides-on-sentence.html

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Modern mobsters turned to The Godfather movie for inspiration

Modern mobsters turned to The Godfather movie for inspiration

  March 12, 2022    Dapper_Don

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A table for five at CaSa Bella in Little Italy in the late 1970s included a few mobsters, a girlfriend and the man they knew as Donnie Brasco, actually an undercover F.B.I. agent. There was business to discuss, but then the mood lightened.

“The restaurant’s strolling guitarist came to our table,” the agent, Joseph Pistone, wrote years later in a memoir. The girlfriend spoke up: “Louise requested the theme from ‘The Godfather.’” The guitarist obliged, and even knew the version with words.

Years later, in 2005, two New York mobsters were heard in a recording talking about a third man, Anthony “Ace” Aiello, who was under investigation in a criminal case. “Ace Aiello is like a Luca Brasi,” one mobster told the other, according to a court document. An agent seeking Aiello’s arrest helpfully added in a footnote: “Brasi was a hit man for the fictional Corleone family.”

And in 2018, yet another familiar reference surfaced in a wiretapped call between Joseph Amato, a mobster, and an associate who was set to become a “made man” in a secret ceremony the following day but was in fact a confidential informant. Amato urged the man to dress appropriately.

“You’re gonna look like Barzini, or what?” he asked, a reference to the sharp-dressing Don played in the film by Richard Conte. The informant chuckled, and replied, “Barzini.”

Mario Puzo, who wrote “The Godfather,” has said that the novel’s keenly observed depictions came from his meticulous research. But since the movie premiered half a century ago, this prime example of art imitating Mafia life has gone on to work in the other direction, too. Generations of mobsters have looked to “The Godfather” for inspiration, validation and as a playbook for how to speak and act and dress, as seen in law enforcement wiretaps and through interviews with some of the players themselves.

The infamous former mob enforcer Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, who has admitted to participating in 19 murders, was a young man just entering the world of mobsters when he first saw the film, and he took it as a sign that he was on the right path. “I looked up to them,” he recalled in a telephone interview, “even more than I ever did.”

“It was so true to life,” he said. “Not just the Mafia life, but the parts of being Italian, the wedding, the whole nine yards. It seemed like it was us, Italians, and our heritage.”

At first, the film was viewed as a threat to that heritage. Before filming began in 1971, Anthony Colombo campaigned to purge the words “Mafia” and “Cosa Nostra” from the screenplay on behalf of the Italian-American Civil Rights League, which had been founded by his father, the organized crime figure Joseph A. Colombo Sr. Fearing labor troubles and interference during filming, particularly in New York, the producers agreed.

But soon after the film opened, it was embraced by many in the underworld it depicted.

“Many wiseguys rejoiced in viewing the original film multiple times,” Selwyn Raab, a veteran writer on organized crime, wrote in his definitive tome, “The Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires” (2014).

“Federal and local investigators on surveillance duty saw and heard made men and wannabes imitating the mannerisms and language of the screen gangsters,” he wrote. “They endlessly played the movie’s captivating musical score, as if it were their private national anthem, at parties and weddings. The film validated their lifestyles and decisions to join the Mob and accept its credo.”

Mob relatives and associates, and mobsters themselves, have reflected on the way the film electrified them. In a memoir, Lynda Milito, the wife of a mobster who was killed in the 1980s — Gravano has admitted to being present — recalled her husband’s obsession with “The Godfather.”

“Louie got a copy and watched it like six thousand times,” Milito wrote in “Mafia Wife: My Story of Love, Murder, and Madness” (2012). She added that “the guys who came to our house were all acting like ‘Godfather’ actors, kissing and hugging even more than they did before and coming out with lines from the movie.”

Nicolas Pileggi, the author of “Wiseguy” (1985), the book that inspired the film “Goodfellas,” said that Henry Hill, the real-life mobster at the story’s center, once told him about going to see “The Godfather.”

Hill recalled piling into a car with the gangsters who were later played in “Goodfellas” by the actors Paul Sorvino, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci to catch an early screening. He told Pileggi he had “felt sort of enlarged by it” and that the movie “was about us.”

“These guys never really had movies that were made about them,” Pileggi said. “They had Edward G. Robinson, Bogart, Jimmy Cagney.”

“The Godfather” and other Mafia movies didn’t just depict the mob, they defined the mob for itself and provided visual and social cues, Diego Gambetta, a sociologist, wrote in “Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate” (2009). “How a real mobster should look, dress and behave are issues for which there is no optimal technical solution,” he wrote, noting that they “cannot for instance devise a company jingle and make it known to everyone without getting caught.”

“Movies,” he wrote, “can accidentally offer some solutions to these problems.”

“The Godfather” offered that and much more to the young Gravano, a boy born in the Italian enclave of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, in 1945. A tough kid, he was a member of a neighborhood gang called the Rampers before he joined the U.S. Army at 19. When he came home at 21, he found all his old Rampers pals had joined the Mafia.

A mobster told him, “You’ve got to belong to a family or you can’t do nothing. You can’t own a bar, you can’t own a club, you can’t do nothing,” Gravano recalled.

And so Salvatore Gravano became “Sammy the Bull.” And a couple of years later, in 1972, he saw the movie.

“I was stunned,” he said. The movie, and a father figure he admired in the Colombo crime family, put him on a clear path. “My dream was to become a gangster, to be honest with you.”

Gravano would eventually wind up in the Gambino family and rise to No. 2, the underboss to John Gotti, the boss of what was then believed to be America’s most powerful crime family. Along the way, he said, he sometimes found himself looking back to “The Godfather” for guidance.

One scene that stayed with him: when the Corleones sit down with an associate of another family to discuss entering the drug trade. Vito Corleone says no, but his hothead son, Sonny, interjects. Vito laments: “I have a sentimental weakness for my children, and I spoil them, as you can see. They talk when they should listen.” He then privately scolds Sonny: “Never tell anybody outside the family what you’re thinking again.”

That scene imprinted on the young Gravano, who said he had given versions of that order many times. “I would tell people: If you open your mouth, have an opinion to do something, they’ll know you’re a weak link,” he said.

He always related most closely with one character. “I literally see myself as Michael Corleone,” he said. “I was in the military, I came home and I went in the Mafia. I abided by the rules and regulations, I stayed quiet. I stayed a family man with my wife and kids.”

Gravano, who was so moved as a young man by a saga of the Mafia’s allure, went on to play a major role in the organization’s undoing. He became a cooperating federal witness and testified against Gotti and others in return for a five-year prison term and entry into the witness protection program. Gravano blames Gotti, who became known as the “The Dapper Don,” for the whole thing falling apart.

“Gotti, in his flamboyant ways, broke every rule in the book,” he said. “He did more damage to the Mafia than 10 people who cooperated put together. You never saw any Mafioso do what he did.”

Benjamin Brafman, a prominent criminal defense lawyer who has in the past represented defendants in organized crime cases, sees “The Godfather” as a postcard from the past. “It glorified an era I don’t think exists anymore,” he said.

Sammy the Bull would agree. Gravano left witness protection years ago and, turning 77 this month, shares stories from his life in a podcast, “Our Thing,” from a studio outside of Phoenix. He said that he doesn’t envy what passes for today’s mobster, unrecognizable to the Corleones. But he still thinks of the movie.

“Here I am, 100 years later,” he chuckled, “still quoting ‘The Godfather.’”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/movies/godfather-mafia.html

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Powerful Colombo Captain who claimed he ran Staten Island is sentenced to six years in prison

Powerful Colombo Captain who claimed he ran Staten Island is sentenced to six years in prison

  October 22, 2021    Dapper_Don

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A reputed Colombo crime family captain who authorities said was a ruthless force on Staten Island during his reign will be spending more time behind bars than he hoped after he was dished a nearly-six-year prison sentence in Brooklyn federal court Thursday.

Joseph Amato Sr., 62, a Colts Neck, N.J., resident who earlier this year pleaded guilty to shaking down two people and stalking his then-girlfriend with a GPS tracking device on the borough, was given minimal sympathy by federal Judge Brian M. Cogan, who called the defendant’s attributes “almost as bad as they can possibly be.”
Garbed in a blue shirt and green pants, Amato mostly sat quiet in court as his lawyer, Scott E. Leemon, fervently argued the conditions at the Brooklyn federal jail where his client has been for the past two years are “barbaric.”

Those conditions, Leemon contended, should warrant a more lenient sentence of 63 months — the bottom of the suggested federal guidelines for the crimes considered in the court.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes argued Amato, who previously served time in prison for his association with organized crime, “doesn’t hesitate to use violence to get what he wants” and has made a series of decisions that has warranted his reputation as a “fearsome mobster.”

“In virtually all of those choices, he has put the goals of the Colombo crime family at the top,” said Geddes.

Prosecutors said Amato “is never going to leave the mafia” and pointed to his willingness to involve his own son, Joseph Amato Jr., in criminal activities as evidence of his dedication to the criminal organization.
Amato Jr. previously pleaded guilty to his role in a conspiracy to extort a loan borrower. The two were among 20 suspects, including 17 borough residents, indicted in Brooklyn federal court in October 2019.

While the two parties could not come to an agreement on the proposed sentencing guidelines for the case (the government believed the sentencing range should be between 70 and 80 months while Leemon calculated it to be between 63 and 78 months), Cogan, who has the right to depart from those suggestions, said the guidelines mattered “very little” in his decision.
Cogan said he considered parting upward past the range of 70 months, noting, “I’ve got to say, there’s a lot of reasons to do it.” However, the conditions at the federal prison ultimately factored into his final verdict, he said.
And while Leemon mentioned Amato Sr.’s “productive” time in prison, which included working and feeding other inmates, Cogan said, “those things pale in comparison to the life he chose for himself.”
Additionally, as prosecutors noted, the stalking charge Amato Sr. pleaded guilty to was not included in the proposed guidelines.
The alleged Colombo captain, who tracked his then-girlfriend in 2015 and 2016 by placing a GPS tracking device in her car, regularly retrieving and recharging it to reposition it on the vehicle, once emailed the woman, “This is my Island, not yours,” referencing Staten Island. “I have eyes all over,” he said.
Excluding that charge from the guidelines, Cogan said, gave Amato Sr. “a real break.” And while the capo took responsibility for the crimes, the federal judge said he had no belief the defendant was capable of believing his crimes were inherently wrong.
“Everything about him suggests incorrigibility,” Cogan said at the sentencing.

NO CONTACT WITH ORGANIZED CRIME
In addition to the five-year-and-10-month sentence, Cogan ordered one year of supervised release that included no contact with any members of organized crime groups.
That point drew a line of contention from the defense lawyer, Leemon, who requested the man’s son be excluded from that restriction.
Prosecutors opposed lifting that rule, citing the pair’s actions together, while Leemon suggested Amato Jr. “changed” his life around.
Ultimately, Cogan determined the two could only engage in monitored conversations with a third party present.
In addition, Amato Sr. must forfeit just over $60,000, the court said.
While he has a right to appeal, Leemon said his client will “probably not” file that paperwork.

https://www.silive.com/crime-safety/2021/10/this-is-my-island-not-yours-alleged-mob-capo-once-threatened-now-hes-off-to-prison-after-rebuke-from-judge.html

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Staten Island man awaits sentencing in luxury car storage shakedown where he mentioned name of Colombo captain

Staten Island man awaits sentencing in luxury car storage shakedown where he mentioned name of Colombo captain

  May 21, 2021    Dapper_Don

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He once sold luxury Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

But Philip Lombardo lost his job after his arrest in 2019 on extortion, racketeering and other charges.

Now, there’s a chance he could lose his freedom.

Lombardo, 62, awaits sentencing in Brooklyn federal court for conspiring to extort money from a victim by threats of violence.

The victim was a person who stored vehicles for Lombardo’s old Mercedes boss in Brooklyn.

The sentencing is scheduled for June 9.

Prosecutors have asked the judge to impose a sentence within the guideline range of 15 to 21 months in prison.

The defense seeks probation.

In October 2019, Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced the arrests of 20 suspects, including Joseph Amato Sr., a purported Colombo crime family capo, and other alleged mobsters.

The defendants were indicted on wide-ranging charges of racketeering, extortion, loansharking and stalking.

One defendant was accused of attempting to fix an NCAA college basketball game. He did not succeed.

Lombardo was among the 17 Staten Islanders charged. Public records indicate he is from New Springville.

AN ASSOCIATE?

Prosecutors identified him as a purported Colombo associate, an allegation his lawyer vehemently objects to in his sentencing memorandum.

“Mr. Lombardo is not a gangster, and he is not an associate of an organized crime family,” wrote John M. Murphy III.

Lombardo knew Amato Sr. through his job, Murphy wrote. He sold Amato and his family “numerous vehicles” throughout the years, said Murphy.

According to prosecutors’ court filings, the extortion occurred in December 2018 and January 2019.

Lombardo was working then at Mercedes-Benz of Brooklyn.

Sometime in 2018, the victim signed a contract to store some of the dealership’s vehicles at an off-site warehouse.

Shortly thereafter, Lombardo approached the man.

The defendant told him he needed to fork over a percentage of his proceeds from the contract, said prosecutors.

Otherwise, he said Amato Sr. would destroy the cars the man was storing for the dealership, prosecutors allege.

Lombardo demanded $500 a month from the victim, said prosecutors. He indicated he’d split the cash with Amato Sr. and possibly a third person, prosecutors said.

Based on Lombardo’s threat, the victim shelled out a one-time payment of $5,000, prosecutors wrote.

Four years earlier, the victim had learned the hard way who Amato was, said prosecutors.

The mob captain and others “violently assaulted” him after the victim had become embroiled in a verbal dispute with Amato’s son, Joseph Amato Jr., prosecutors said.

Lombardo had “lured” the man to the location where he was attacked, said prosecutors. However, it was unclear if Lombardo knew of Amato’s plans to assault the victim, prosecutors said.

LOST JOB

The defendant lost his job at Mercedes after his 2019 arrest.

Afterward, he managed to land another car-sales gig. However, it was for less than half his salary at Mercedes, his lawyer said in court papers.

Last October, Lombardo pleaded guilty to interference with commerce by threat or violence to resolve his case.

Prosecutors maintain a sentence within the guideline range of 15 to 21 months is appropriate. Judges are not bound by the guidelines.

“Because extortionate conduct allows dangerous criminal organizations such as the Colombo family to earn money, these crimes are necessary for the Colombo family’s survival,” wrote prosecutors Elizabeth Geddes, Megan E. Farrell and James McDonald. “And, because extortions can lead to violence, this crime is particularly serious and warrants a sentence within the guidelines range.”

Murphy, the defense lawyer, maintained probation is sufficient punishment.

Lombardo, he contends, was “a minor participant in the extortion.”

He noted Lombardo has no prior criminal convictions. The lawyer also pointed to various letters of support submitted on the defendant’s behalf.

In them, family, friends and community members described him as a “caring, devoted father and friend” and talked about his “honesty and selflessness,” said Murphy.

“The most noteworthy part of this case, as it relates to Mr. Lombardo, is how aberrational this conduct is for him,” wrote the attorney. “… Phil Lombardo has made the world a better place for those he encounters. … It is extremely saddening to see a selfish act tarnish his exemplary character.”

Should the judge decide to incarcerate Lombardo, Murphy asked that he impose home detention or a sentence below the guideline range.

As part of his sentence, Lombardo must forfeit $5,000, said prosecutors’ court filings.

https://www.silive.com/crime-safety/2021/05/he-dropped-mobsters-name-in-luxury-car-storage-shakedown-now-he-awaits-his-fate.html

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Staten Island man who is son of turncoat Gambino soldier is accused of being a Colombo associate and is sentenced for extortion

Staten Island man who is son of turncoat Gambino soldier is accused of being a Colombo associate and is sentenced for extortion

  May 16, 2021    Dapper_Don

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Staten Island resident Primo Cassarino is a Colombo crime family associate, federal prosecutors allege.

And the son of mob turncoat Primo Cassarino Sr. used those wiseguys’ “violent reputation” to extort payment of gambling debt, contend prosecutors.

For that “serious” crime, Cassarino deserved to spend up to 27 months in prison, Brooklyn federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Cassarino’s lawyer, however, contended the alleged mob links are way off.

Such accusations are “extremely inflammatory and prejudicial,” wrote Vincent J. Licata in his memo to the court.

Cassarino, 33, was never accused of engaging in any organized criminal activity, Licata wrote. Nor did he plead guilty to doing so.

But last year Cassarino, did admit to the crime of extortionate collection of credit.

And for that felony he was sentenced on Thursday to 18 months in prison, plus a year of supervised release.

Cassarino has also agreed to forfeit $13,500, which represents his portion of the collected debt, said court papers.

In October 2019, Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced the arrests of 20 suspects, including Joseph Amato Sr., a purported Colombo crime family capo, and other alleged mobsters.

The defendants were indicted on wide-ranging charges of racketeering, extortion, loansharking and stalking.

One defendant was accused of attempting to fix an NCAA college basketball game. He did not succeed.

Cassarino was among those charged.

According to prosecutors’ court filings, Cassarino ran a lucrative, illegal online sports-betting operation.

The business “generated significant profits for the operators and significant debts for the gamblers, which, in turn, led to loansharking loans,” wrote prosecutors.

One individual who obtained a loan was a cooperating witness. He had accumulated a gambling debt of over $30,000 on the site, prosecutors said.

Under an arrangement with Joseph Amato Jr., the mob captain’s son, the debt was owed jointly to Cassarino and the younger Amato, said prosecutors.

In intercepted phone calls, Cassarino and Amato Jr. discussed extending a loan to the witness and collecting the debt, prosecutors said.

The two men allegedly used burner phones to try to avoid detection.

Cassarino also regularly contacted a co-defendant who was collecting payments on the loan, said prosecutors.

When the cooperator fell behind, the co-defendant threatened him “on multiple occasions,” prosecutors contend.

Cassarino assisted the co-defendant at least one time in July 2019, said prosecutors.

He texted the witness, said he was a friend of the co-defendant’s and arranged to pick up a payment, prosecutors said.

However, Licata, the defense lawyer, maintained his client never met with or spoke to the witness. Nor did he help in collecting the loan, said the attorney.

As such, his role in the crime was “only peripheral,” Licata contended.

“Mr. Cassarino had nothing whatsoever to do with arranging and/or collecting any loan or with repayment,” Licata wrote. “Mr. Cassarino’s only interest was receiving payment of the gambling debt. … At no time did Mr. Cassarino participate in the use of any type of extortionate means to collect the gambling debt owed by (the cooperating witness).”

Licata sought a sentence of 366 days behind bars for his client, plus a year of supervised release.

Prosecutors asked the judge to impose a sentence within the guideline range of 21 to 27 months in prison.

Judges are not bound by the sentencing guidelines.

Cassarino’s father, also named Primo Cassarino, is a purported Gambino crime family soldier who turned on the mob.

He began cooperating with authorities well over a decade ago.

Previously, in 2003, the elder Cassarino had been convicted of shakedowns at the Staten Island waterfront and of actor Steven Seagal.

https://www.silive.com/crime-safety/2021/05/feds-say-hes-a-colombo-crime-family-associate-his-lawyer-denies-it-still-hes-sentenced-for-extortion.html

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Feds say recently sentenced Staten Island plumber is a violence prone Colombo family soldier

Feds say recently sentenced Staten Island plumber is a violence prone Colombo family soldier

  April 27, 2021    Dapper_Don

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A plumber by trade, borough resident Thomas Scorcia also was an inducted member of the Colombo organized crime family who ran a “lucrative loansharking business,” federal prosecutors said.

In fact, to ensure he could locate his debtors and make it clear he knew where they lived, Scorcia required copies of their driver’s licenses and contact information, said prosecutors.

Scorcia, 54, also let it be known he would resort to violence, if need be, to advance his business, as well as to enhance his reputation within the mob, prosecutors allege.

In one instance in January 2019, Scorcia and another man planned to confront a fellow loanshark operator at the Woodrow Diner in Rossville over a business dispute, feds say.

However, the eatery was too crowded, and they backed off.

“I’m sick to my f------ stomach, I was just gonna walk right in there, but there’s f------ people coming out with f------ families,” Scorcia said afterward, according to an intercepted phone conversation.

As it turns out, Scorcia will be out of business for a while.

He was recently sentenced to 42 months behind bars and two years’ post-release supervision for racketeering.

In addition, the defendant was hit with a $20,000 fine and forfeited $75,000, which includes over $34,000 seized during a search.

Authorities said they also found an adjustable steel baton, a ski mask, binoculars and a book on the mob in a covered compartment of his vehicle’s trunk, said prosecutors.

Public records indicated Scorcia is from Annadale.

2019 BUST

In October 2019, Scorcia was among 20 suspects busted, including a purported Colombo crime family capo and other alleged mobsters, and indicted on wide-ranging charges of racketeering, extortion, loansharking and stalking.

Seventeen of the defendants were Staten Islanders, including one who was accused of attempting to fix a NCAA college basketball game in December 2018, authorities said.

Officials said 11 of the suspects were members or associates of the Colombos.

Besides Scorcia, they included Joseph Amato of Colts Neck, N.J., the alleged captain; and family members Daniel Capaldo and Vincent Scura, both of Staten Island, said authorities.

Many of the defendants have accepted plea agreements.

Scorcia pleaded guilty last November in Brooklyn federal court to one count of racketeering.

He admitted to extorting two individuals with “an implied threat of economic harm to (their) reputation,” if they failed to repay loans to him, said a sentencing memorandum submitted by defense lawyers Vincent J. Romano and Anthony DiPietro.

Prosecutors said Scorcia was heard on a wiretap speaking about an instance in which he and two other men, one a former mixed martial arts fighter, had confronted one of the victims over a delinquent payment.

“… I told the guy, ‘Sit in the car,’ and the kid had the tears, like between me and you, like … ‘No, please, T. [i.e., Scorcia]. No.’ Boom! But we’ll talk about that in person. I got this kid good right now,” Scorcia said, according to prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum.

The victim denied to law enforcement that Scorcia had hit him, although the defendant allegedly told another Colombo associate that he had, said prosecutors.

Prosecutors recommended Scorcia be sentenced to within the guideline range of 37 to 46 months in prison.

“In this case, specific deterrence and incapacitation are critical,” Brooklyn federal prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum. “When the defendant became a member of the Colombo crime family, he took an oath, swearing to remain loyal to this violent criminal organization for the remainder of his life. … Few, if any, members of the mafia give up their connections to the mafia even after serving significant terms of imprisonment.”

Romano and DiPietro, the defense lawyers, contended a sentence of 27 months behind bars, together with three years of supervised release and a forfeiture of $75,000, would be “sufficient” to accomplish sentencing goals.

Scorcia, who has been incarcerated since his arrest, has been a model inmate, they said.

“He has utilized this time while imprisoned to strive towards self-betterment,” wrote the lawyers.

Scorcia has completed “numerous” programs while incarcerated and “performed numerous acts of goodwill to the benefit of both staff and inmates,” the attorneys said.

The defendant has no prior criminal record and “is prepared to return to his community as a positive contributor,” wrote the attorneys.

“It cannot be overstated that the public will be best served by allowing Mr. Scorcia the opportunity to rebuild his life with his family at this time, not by requiring his further imprisonment and the corresponding diminution in his ability to find lawful work and to productively reenter his community at a significantly later date,” the defense lawyers maintained.

https://www.silive.com/crime-safety/2021/04/si-plumber-is-member-of-mob-feds-say-hes-going-to-prison-in-scary-loanshark-case.html

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Colombo captain pleads guilty to racketeering and stalking and faces up to seven years in prison

Colombo captain pleads guilty to racketeering and stalking and faces up to seven years in prison

  March 22, 2021    Dapper_Don

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Like father, like son. 

A reputed organized-crime family capo and his son took a pair of plea deals Monday in a case that netted nearly a dozen other accused Colombo mobsters and associates.

Joseph Amato, 62, pleaded guilty to racketeering and stalking in Brooklyn federal court Monday morning — admitting to shaking down businesses and tracking his girlfriend with a GPS device on her car. 

Later that afternoon, his 28-year-old son, Joseph Amato Jr., copped to threatening an unnamed man with violence if he didn’t repay a loan in December of 2018. 

Amato’s extraordinary efforts to track his gal pal’s movements actually led the feds in 2019 to bust his son and 18 others — including 11 alleged members and associates of the mob family — on charges of racketeering, loansharking and extortion.

The girlfriend apparently found the gadget, and it wound up on an MTA bus, “likely to thwart Amato’s stalking efforts,” court papers said — where it was found by a mechanic.

The feds then started wiretapping the family and allegedly uncovered a range of criminal activities from their pals — including an attempt to fix an NCAA basketball game.

“I participated in at least two overt acts,” Amato Sr. said via videoconference Monday morning.

He admitted that he took partial control of the Staten Island business through extortion and took property from another through threats of force.

He also admitted to regularly removing a GPS device from his girlfriend’s car to charge it and replanting the tracker on her car Jan. 1, 2015, and Oct. 21, 2016, and repeatedly telling her he knew her location.

“I knew it would reasonable and emotion distress to her,” he said.

The elder Amato is expected to be sentenced to five to seven years as part of his  deal, allowing him to avoid a 20-year stint in the slammer. 

His son, who remains out on bond, is expected to be sentenced to 21 to 27 months in prison.  

Both Amatos are scheduled for sentencing on July 20. 

https://nypost.com/2021/03/22/reputed-colombo-mobster-takes-plea-deal-in-racketeering-case/ 

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Wagner College graduate linked to Colombo crime family gets one year probation from judge

Wagner College graduate linked to Colombo crime family gets one year probation from judge

  March 12, 2021    Dapper_Don

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A Wagner College graduate who tried to fix an NCAA basketball game in a mob-linked scheme on Thursday received a slap on the wrist — and a tongue-lashing from the judge.

Benjamin Bifalco, 27, was sentenced to one year probation after pleading guilty last year to attempted sports bribery involving a game between two Division I schools. He had faced up to six months in jail.

During the hour-long hearing in Brooklyn federal court, which was conducted virtually, Judge I. Leo Glasser scolded Bifalco for letting his ego get the better of him and for his evasive responses. “I haven’t been able to get a straight answer from you with respect to any question that I have asked,” the judge sniped.

But Bifalco expressed remorse for his conduct, admitting that he was driven by a desire to impress a mobbed-up pal — before expressing gratitude to the judge.

“Your Honor, you saved my life, I can’t thank you enough,” he said. “You’ll never have to see my face again, I promise you that.”

The contest in question was between the Wagner Seahawks and the heavily favored St. John’s University Red Storm Dec. 16, 2018, at the Carnesecca Arena in Queens.

Four days before the game, Bifalco was caught on a wiretap telling his childhood pal, Colombo mob family associate Joseph Amato Jr., that he had dreamed of fixing a basketball game since he was a college freshman.

The feds ended up hearing Bifulco’s absurd boasts while listening in on Amato, whose father, Joseph Amato, is a powerful captain in the Colombo crime family.

The father and son were charged in 2019 — along with 18 others — in an unrelated loansharking, racketeering and extortion case. They pleaded not guilty.

During the call with the younger Amato, Bifalco said he’d already paid $7,500 to three Seahawks starters who had promised to lose the game and would pay them more afterward.

The college student, who had majored in finance, said he planned to bet $50,000 on the game.

“St. John’s is home, so this is why it’s gonna work,” he said. “They’re gonna have the refs on their side already. Wagner’s team sucks. They honestly suck. So, if we can have three people that impact the game the most, miss free throws, bring the shot clock down to one [second] before every shot, control the pace of the game, so it’s not high scoring.”

But it turned out the student was all talk. He never paid the players or wagered any money on the game, which turned out to be a lucky stroke for him. St. John’s won 73-58.

The crime cost him his job. Out of college, Bifalco landed a gig working for then-Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, but was fired the day he was indicted. Malliotakis is now a congresswoman representing Staten Island.

“My potential future loss has been great but it still does not equal the harm my actions have caused others,” Bifalco said in court.

His lawyer, Vincent Martinelli, added that his client now plans to attend law school.

https://nypost.com/2021/03/11/wagner-student-who-tried-to-fix-ncaa-game-gets-probation/

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Federal judge releases one and holds another Colombo mobster citing safety risk to Staten Island residents

Federal judge releases one and holds another Colombo mobster citing safety risk to Staten Island residents

  October 08, 2019    Dapper_Don

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A federal judge released one tough-talking Colombo crime family associate from custody Tuesday, but decided his seasoned wiseguy co-defendant was too dangerous to let loose.

Daniel Capaldo, 54, an alleged Colombo gangster, was held in custody at his Brooklyn federal court bail hearing, with U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo citing his criminal record in deciding his release would pose a danger to Staten Island residents.

“It’s almost as if Mr. Capaldo can’t help but get himself in trouble — even if he’s being watched by the government,” she said. “So I find that I cannot release him under those circumstances.”

Prosecutors said career criminal Capaldo, who was sentenced to 14 years in federal lockup on drug trafficking and tax fraud charges in the late 90s and another three years for financing and extortion a few years after his release, used his larger-than-life presence to “intimidate and extort” victims in loansharking schemes.

“He’s committed crime after crime after crime,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes.

The alleged mobster’s younger co-defendant, Anthony Silvestro, 28, was released on a $500,000 surety bond. Citing the Bail Reform Act and Silvestro’s clean record, Judge Kuo placed him on home detention with an ankle monitor, which she ordered him to pay for.

Geddes said an eager-to-please Silvestro was heard bragging about beatings and making “a grown man cry” in wiretapped calls, adding that he signed himself up for violent shakedowns without ever questioning their purpose.

“If you say you need me, I’m there,” she quoted Silvestro as saying on one call.

Silvestro’s mother, brother, aunt and uncle, who were all present in court Tuesday, co-signed the mammoth bond amount.

“That’s half a million dollars — that’s a lot of money,” the judge warned them.

Capaldo and Silvestro are two of 20 suspects charged with extortion by violent means, loansharking, racketeering and other offenses in three sweeping federal indictments unsealed Oct. 3.

The investigation started in November 2016 after workers at an MTA bus depot in New Springville, Staten Island, discovered a GPS tracking device planted on the oil pan of a city bus.

Prosecutors connected the device to alleged Colombo captain Joseph Amato — who they allege was stalking his then-girlfriend — and began wiretapping his calls.

During the back-to-back hearings, lawyers for the two men said the government failed to prove either man engaged in violent or criminal acts.

“Can you detain someone for talking tough?” Silvestro’s attorney Mathew Mari said. “Maybe he’s got the wrong friends . . . but I don’t think that’s enough to convict someone of these crimes.”

Capaldo’s lawyer, Vincent Romano, said Geddes’ arguments were “cut and pasted” from a 2011 detention memo filed against Capaldo in the same courthouse. The lawyer said his client has given the court no reason to believe he won’t abide by certain conditions under release.

“He’s got a 4-year-old at home. He’s got a wife,” Romano told reporters. “We’ll deal with the charges in court and hopefully he’ll be granted bail in the near future.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/ny-colombo-crime-family-bail-hearing-20191008-vjgbjrg6r5hjnijst3pq6lnoxq-story.html

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Tracking device led to arrests of 20 Colombo mobsters

Tracking device led to arrests of 20 Colombo mobsters

  October 07, 2019    Dapper_Don

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A domineering mobster’s efforts to track his girlfriend with a GPS device led authorities to uncover an array of criminal schemes that included an attempt to fix a college basketball game, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The stunning turn of events was revealed as 20 people — including 11 reputed members and associates of the Colombo crime family — were busted on charges including racketeering, loansharking and extortion.
Reputed Colombo capo Joseph Amato, 60, allegedly bought the electronic tracker to keep tabs on his then-girlfriend, identified only as “Jane Doe,” by secretly attaching it to her car.
Amato stalked the woman between Jan. 1, 2015, and Oct. 21, 2016, during which time he had to “regularly and covertly retrieve the device, charge it and then re-position it on Jane Doe’s car,” according to papers filed in Brooklyn federal court.
The controlling capo also allegedly sent the woman intimidating emails about his influence and power on Staten Island, including one that said, “This is my island. Not yours. I have the eyes all over.”
In another, Amato — who in 1995 was convicted in the shooting of a 15-year-old witness to an attempted rubout during the third Colombo family civil war — allegedly boasted that “I’m called a MAN’S MAN!!!”
“Anyone could end up in jail. I don’t wish it on anyone[.] Especially weak men. Who could never deal with it. I thrived there and anywhere I go,” court papers say he wrote.
The woman eventually discovered the GPS tracker, which then somehow wound up attached to the oil pan of an MTA bus, “likely to thwart Amato’s stalking efforts,” court papers say.
A mechanic found the device in November 2016 during a routine maintenance inspection at the MTA bus depot on Staten Island, leading the feds to launch an investigation, according to the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office.

Wiretaps on the phones of Amato, his son Joseph Amato Jr. and reputed Colombo soldier Thomas Scorcia resulted in “thousands of intercepted phone calls and text messages,” court papers say.
The eavesdropping allegedly caught Amato Jr., 26, talking on a cellphone with Benjamin Bifalco, 25, about Bifalco’s plan to “pay thousands of dollars to multiple members” of an unidentified team to lose an NCCA Division 1 basketball game by more than the point spread.
But Bifalco apparently couldn’t pull off the December 2018 scam, with court papers saying that Amato Jr. sent two text messages to Scorcia, 52, shortly before the opening tip.
“Ok I wouldn’t trust the game I was telling u about” and “I’m not touching it personally,” Amato Jr. allegedly wrote.

In court papers, prosecutors said that “was good advice given that the favored team did not cover the spread and the bets would not have been winning ones.”
The defendants — who include reputed Colombo soldiers Daniel “The Wig” Capaldo and Vincent “Vinny Linen” Scura, and reputed associate Anthony “Bugz” Silvestro — were being arraigned Thursday afternoon.

https://nypost.com/2019/10/03/reputed-mobsters-gps-tracker-on-girlfriend-leads-to-20-arrests-feds/

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Colombo captain's GPS tracking device shook up the MTA

Colombo captain's GPS tracking device shook up the MTA

  October 07, 2019    Dapper_Don

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The Colombo crime family wasn’t the only victim of the GPS tracking device that sparked Thursday’s big mob takedown — it also shook up the New York City bus system.
When MTA mechanics found the tracker during a routine maintenance inspection in November 2016, the Staten Island depot where it was located was evacuated and explosives experts were called in to make sure it wasn’t a small bomb, two sources told The Post.
“It was considered a ‘suspicious package,'” one source said. The Yukon Bus Depot in New Springfield was evacuated for more than two hours “as a precaution.”
The device, which was stuck by magnets to the oil pan under a bus in the middle, quickly turned out to be “just” a GPS — and officials confirmed it hadn’t been installed as part of any official MTA study.
Still, the undercarriage of every bus in the five boroughs was searched for any similar devices using mirrors on metal poles.
“We searched every bus as soon as it happened,” one MTA source said.
The mystery of who might want to track the comings and goings of a Staten Island bus — Terrorists? A disgruntled employee? Some renegade, amateur transit geek? — was quickly solved by the feds.
They tracked the tracker with help from an unlikely source, reputed Colombo capo Joseph Amato Sr. who, amazingly, had reported it lost.
Amato had been keeping tabs on his girlfriend by secretly sticking the GPS on her car for “a period of months,” the feds said in court papers.
“Joseph Amato had purchased the device to place a girlfriend, identified herein as Jane Doe, under close surveillance,” the feds said.
The jealous capo would have to “regularly and covertly retrieve the device, charge it and then reposition it on Jane Doe’s car,” the feds said in the papers, which sought to convince a judge to keep Amato and four other defendants held without bail.
“He abandoned the surveillance only after he discovered that the tracker was no longer attached to Jane Doe’s car, at which time he reported the device lost to the electronic service provider administering the tracking service,” the feds said.
“The device apparently had been discovered and was placed on the MTA bus, likely to thwart Amato’s stalking efforts.”
It didn’t work — Amato promptly bought a new GPS, the feds said.
“Apparently not deterred by the discovery of the first device, in May 2017, Amato obtained a replacement tracking device and again took efforts to place it on Jane Doe’s vehicle and surveil her movements.”
Still, the damage was done: it was upon the discovery of the first tracking device that “the government commenced a larger investigation into Amato,” the feds said.
The FBI investigation, which would loop in the Drug Enforcement Administration and the NYPD, found through wiretaps, search warrants and witness interviews that “the Colombo family is thriving and continues to engage in criminal activity including, among other crimes, acts of explicit violence, extortion, loansharking and the operation of illegal gambling businesses,” the feds wrote.
Twenty defendants have been hit with charges that include racketeering, loansharking and extortion.
Amato faces racketeering charges relating to six alleged victims, two counts of cyberstalking and one count of threatening to commit a crime of violence; he pleaded not guilty Thursday and is being held without bail.

https://nypost.com/2019/10/04/how-a-tracking-device-owned-by-a-jealous-mobster-shook-the-mta/ 

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Son of Colombo captain released on $1M bail

Son of Colombo captain released on $1M bail

  October 07, 2019    Dapper_Don

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The son of reputed Colombo capo Joseph Amato Sr. was granted release on $1 million bail — four days after federal prosecutors objected to his release because he keeps dropping his dad’s name around town.
But Brooklyn federal court Judge Leo Glasser — a bench veteran who presided over the 1992 John Gotti murder trial and other mob cases — said Monday that Joseph Amato Jr. would be allowed out under house arrest because has no criminal record, even if he “comes off as a very tough guy.”
“To my knowledge, 25 years ago, when I dealt in a case with his father has no use here,” Glasser said. “This man has no prior arrests. I’m not suggesting a threat isn’t as serious, but that’s what we have.”
Prosecutors argued the younger Amato has a penchant for throwing out his infamous dad’s name to intimidate people — and once beat a man who told him he didn’t know who his father was.
“Home detention isn’t viable for pretrial for the safety of the community,” Assistant US Attorney Elizabeth Geddes told Glasser Monday. “The defendant has a history of using electronic devices to carry out his threats of violence and it’s hard to supervise.”
“It’s clear the defendant not only turns to his father, he debriefs him and seeks his approval on acts,” she added,
Amato Jr.’s lawyer called comparing “watermelons to oranges.”
“This is not a case for remand. My client has no criminal history, there’s no allegations of violence and no allegations of destruction. They are hypothesizing that somehow, this will lead to violence,” attorney James Froccaro told the judge.
Both Amatos were scooped up last week in a wide-ranging federal sweep alleging criminal activity dating to 2014 — brought on by the elder Amato using a GPS device to keep tabs on his girlfriend that was discovered by the feds.
Amato Jr. was charged with racketeering, conspiracy, extortion and conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

https://nypost.com/2019/10/07/son-of-reputed-colombo-mobster-gets-out-on-1m-bail/

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Feds bust major Colombo family operations on Staten Island

Feds bust major Colombo family operations on Staten Island

  October 03, 2019    Dapper_Don

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Three indictments were unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn variously charging 20 defendants with racketeering, extortion, loansharking, stalking, attempted sports bribery and related offenses.  Among those charged with racketeering were Joseph Amato, an alleged captain in the Colombo organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra (“the Colombo family”); Daniel Capaldo and Thomas Scorcia, alleged Colombo family members; and Joseph Amato, Jr. and Anthony Silvestro, alleged Colombo family associates.  An additional alleged Colombo family member, Vincent Scura, was also indicted.  The indictments relate to the defendants’ charged criminal activities in Staten Island and elsewhere since January 2014.
The defendants were arrested this morning, and are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Vera M. Scanlon.
Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI); and James P. O’Neill, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), announced the charges.
As alleged in the indictments and the government’s detention letters, the investigation began in November 2016 when a GPS tracking device was found concealed on an MTA bus.  Amato had earlier obtained the device to surveil his then-girlfriend and boasted about the resources at his disposal to keep her under close surveillance.  In one email, Amato stated, “This is my island. Not yours.  I have eyes all over[.]”  In another email, Amato stated, ‘I’m a MANS MAN!!!”  His then-girlfriend discovered the device on her vehicle and removed it, and it was subsequently attached to and recovered from the MTA bus at a depot n Staten Island.  Thereafter, the government obtained court-authorization to intercept communications over various cellular telephones used by the defendants.
As detailed in the government’s court filings, Amato and members of his crew used violence and threats of violence to earn illegal proceeds and solidify the crew’s reputation and standing.  On one occasion, an individual confronted Amato Jr. for insulting a woman in a bar.  Amato Jr. told the individual to back off, and threatened, “Do you know who my father is?”  The following day, the individual was lured to a location where Amato, Amato Jr. and other members of Amato’s crew brutally beat the victim, leaving him bloodied and in need of staples in his scalp.  On other occasions, court-authorized intercepts captured: (1) Scorcia boasting, “I told the guy sit in the car, and the kid had the tears,” (2) Silvestro advising Scorcia, “[Y]ou send him a smack.  If he raises his hand back to you, we beat the bricks off him, that’s it” and (3) following the commission of one of the charged crimes of violence, Amato Jr. described the crime and the victim’s reaction, “[W]e abused him so bad.  Yo I had, bro, me and Pap (Silvestro), bro, had him shaking bro.  He was in tears, he was crying.”
The court-authorized wiretaps also captured the defendants’ scheme to fix an NCAA college basketball game.  To further the scheme, defendant Benjamin Bifalco offered members of a college basketball team thousands of dollars to intentionally lose the game.  
Two firearms, two stun guns, a canister of purported tear gas and thousands of dollars in U.S. currency were recovered during court-authorized searches of residences of Amato and Scorcia.
“The mafia is not the criminal threat it once was, but we remain vigilant and will vigorously investigate and prosecute members and associates who engage in violence and extortion to intimidate victims and enrich themselves and their crime family,” stated United States Attorney Donoghue.  Mr. Donoghue extended his grateful appreciation to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force for its assistance during the investigation.
“One of the stunning things revealed in this investigation, it seems members of the mafia families that were once almost romanticized by Hollywood and pop culture, have resorted to acting like playground bullies.  As alleged, they are still up to their old extortion and bribery schemes, and terrorizing their victims, but they are also still getting caught.  The FBI New York Joint Organized Crime Task Force wants to send a clear message to members of the families in our communities who continue to operate, we will do all we can to stop a true resurgence from ever happening,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney.
“The successful outcome of this investigation shows our continued efforts to target and hold responsible organized criminal syndicates,” stated NYPD Commissioner O’Neill.  “I thank our investigators and law enforcement counterparts whose cooperation was vital to bringing these individuals to justice.”
The charges in the indictments are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Organized Crime & Gangs Section.  Assistant United States Attorneys Elizabeth A. Geddes and Megan E. Farrell are in charge of the prosecution.
The Defendants:
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 19-CR-442 (S-1)(ILG)
JOSEPH AMATO
Age: 60
Colts Neck, New Jersey
JOSEPH AMATO, JR.
Age: 26
Staten Island, New York
JOHN CAHILL
Age: 27
Staten Island, New York
DANIEL CAPALDO (also known as “The Wig” and “Shrek”)
Age: 54
Staten Island, New York
PRIMO CASSARINO
Age: 31
Staten Island, New York
CHRISTOPHER COFFARO
Age: 21
Staten Island, New York
JOHN DUNN
Age: 30
Staten Island, New York
PHILIP LOMBARDO
Age: 61
Staten Island, New York
JOSEPH MARRA (also known as “Joe Fish”)
Age: 58
Brooklyn, New York
ALBERT MASTERJOSEPH
Age: 57
Brooklyn, New York
DOMINICK RICIGLIANO (also known as “The Lion”)
Age: 30
Staten Island, New York
THOMAS SCORCIA
Age: 52
Staten Island, New York
VINCENT SCURA (also known as “Vinny Linen”)
Age: 58
Staten Island, New York
ANTHONY SILVESTRO (also known as “Bugz”)
Age: 28
Staten Island, New York
KRENAR SUKA
Age: 26
Staten Island, New York
JOHN TUCCIARONE
Age: 39
Staten Island, New York
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 19-CR-443 (CBA)
ANTHONY BOSCO
Age: 26
Staten Island, New York
NICHOLAS BOSCO
Age: 30
Staten Island, New York
JOSEPH BOSCO
Age: 55
Staten Island, New York
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 19-CR-444 (ARR)
BENJAMIN BIFALCO
Age:  25
Staten Island, New York

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/20-defendants-charged-crimes-including-racketeering-extortion-loansharking

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Colombo gangster is sentenced to 70 months in prison despite plea from deceased firefighter's wife

Colombo gangster is sentenced to 70 months in prison despite plea from deceased firefighter's wife

  November 05, 2015    Dapper_Don

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A plea for mercy from the widow of a hero firefighter didn't do much good for a reputed Colombo gangster who was sentenced Thursday to 70 months in prison for drugs and money laundering crimes.

John Cerbone, 43, who does double duty as a plumber and a goodfella, tried to portray himself as a good guy, too, in his bid for a five-year sentence.

Linda Graffagnino had written to Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis that Cerbone had helped take care of her two young children after her husband Joseph was killed in the Deutsche Bank fire in 2007. Cerbone is a longtime friend of Linda Graffagnino and is dating her sister.

"He's a good guy, that's wonderful," Garaufis said. "But he also had to do what he has to do to be law-abiding in other respects."

Linda Graffagnino said Cerbone had helped take care of her two young children after her husband Joseph was killed in the Deutsche Bank fire. Here, firefighters respond to the 2007 blaze.

The widow of Firefighter Joseph Graffagnino, killed in 2007, is friends with Cerbone and made a plea to the judge for mercy.

Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes stated in court papers that Cerbone is a member of Colombo capo Joseph Amato's crew, and had suggested to an informant last year that he had been inducted into the crime family as a made man.

Cerbone is a triplet and his two brothers attended the sentencing. Last year Cerbone tried to pass himself off as his brother Joseph when a Drug Enforcement Administration agent handed him a subpoena.

The mobster shed his blue dress shirt and donned a red T-shirt in a pathetic attempt to confuse the media outside Brooklyn Federal Court. Linda Graffagnino declined to comment.

Cerbone pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine, marijuana and oxycodone pills, and laundering the illicit proceeds after he was caught in a sting operation.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mobster-70-months-despire-plea-fdny-widow-article-1.2424706

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Brothers of Colombo gangster surrender their passports

Brothers of Colombo gangster surrender their passports

  May 13, 2015    Dapper_Don

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The Cerbone triplets, John (right), charged with drug-trafficking and who feds say tried to pass himself off as identical twin Joseph (center), and Anthony.

A set of triplets and another brother were ordered to surrender their passports to ensure their brother — a reputed Colombo gangster arrested on drug charges — doesn't try to flee the country posing as one of his siblings.

John Cerbone, 43, has already tried to pull the impersonation act once before, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes said Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

When Cerbone was handed a subpoena by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents more than a year ago, he falsely claimed that he was Joseph Cerbone, his brother, according to the prosecutor.

“He bragged about it to a confidential informant who was secretly recording him,” Geddes said.

On Monday, Cerbone was arrested and carrying a driver's license in the name of Joseph Cerbone.

Geddes said that in light of John’s past use of his brother’s identity and their strong resemblance, the government is concerned he could get on a plane and go on the lam posing as Joseph or Anthony, the third member of the Cerbone threesome.

Brooklyn Magistrate Marilyn Go agreed and not only ordered the triplets to surrender their passports, but a fourth brother, Andre, as well, who strongly resembles the trio.

“I’ll give them my f------ passport, I don’t care, I look like him too,” Andre Cerbone said outside the courtroom.

John Cerbone, an alleged member of Colombo capo Joseph Amato’s crew, is indicted on charges of distributing cocaine, oxycodone, and amphetamines.

He is also charged with using his plumbing business to launder the proceeds of illicit drug proceeds.

John Cerbone was allegedly planning to make a $68,000 purchase of cocaine on the day he was arrested, Geddes said.

The judge approved Cerbone's release on $500,000 bail pending the signing of the bond by all the suretors.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/brothers-give-passports-brother-bail-article-1.2220779

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