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

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Gambino associate applies to FEMA for help in aftermath of Hurricane Sandy


Sandy has hit New York so hard that even mobsters are turning to the feds for help.
A hard-boiled gangster says the hurricane has made his Brooklyn house sleep with the fishes and forced him to call for assistance from the G-men at FEMA, according to a court filing in which the mobster asks that his extortion sentencing to be delayed because of the storm.
Gambino associate Emanuel Garofalo, 64, claims that his house in the exclusive enclave of Sea Gate got whacked by the storm.
“Since the storm, Mr. Garofalo’s days have been consumed by the process of repair and rebuilding,” defense attorney Michael Macklowitz wrote in the letter. “As a skilled operator of heavy machinery, Mr. Garofalo has been manning equipment — such as a bulldozer — to clear the streets and perform other critical tasks.”
The letter does not explain how the wiseguy — who is facing 20 years behind bars — got his mitts on a bulldozer.
Garofalo uses his muscle in the construction trades. He admitted in February to forcing a businessman in the industry to hand over a cut of his earnings to the Gambino crime family, according to court documents.
To turn up the heat on his reluctant victim, Garofalo and other mobsters “menaced the man’s home” and “ultimately assaulted and beat him,” court documents state.
Garofalo’s home is less than 50 yards from the beach.
In his letter, his attorney claims the home’s basement and first floor were flooded in the storm and that power is still out.
The gangster even complains that FEMA isn’t showing him the proper respect.
“In addition to the grueling physical work in which he has been engaged, he has been navigating the complicated, and often frustrating, process of dealing with FEMA and insurance companies — a process that is both time consuming and draining, and the outcome of which is still uncertain,” the letter states.
Because of the “tremendous emotional, physical, and financial toll on Mr. Garofalo,” he won’t be ready to be sentenced until mid-January.
Garofalo’s sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 6 in Brooklyn federal court. No decision on the postponement request has been made.
This isn’t the first cheeky request by Garofalo, who once asked that his travel restriction be eased so he could drive to Florida with his wife and attend a basic driver course in order to save his license.
Macklowitz did not respond to a request for comment and Garofalo could not be reached.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/wiseguy_help_me_fema_aPjf5RFJJUbY9g4O4xinEI


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