Gotti Grandson Sent to Jail for COVID-Funds Fraud

By Rupert Deedes

Mob boss John Gotti’s grandson, Carmine Gotti Agnello, an Oyster Bay businessman, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for defrauding a COVID-19 relief program of more than a million dollars in taxpayer funds.

The case reflects both the lingering shadow of his family name and the modern forms of financial crime which emerged during the pandemic.

Beginning in the early months of the pandemic, between April 2020 and November 2021, Agnello applied for at least three loans under the Small Business Administration’s COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, a federal initiative created to keep small businesses afloat during the crisis. 

He submitted the applications in the name of his business, Crown Auto Parts & Recycling LLC, a scrap and auto parts operation based in New York. Prosecutors later revealed that the company was no longer operating when he sought much of the relief money, undercutting his claims that the funds were needed to sustain a functioning business.

On the applications, Agnello lied about key facts, including his criminal history, in order to qualify for aid reserved for legitimate enterprises struggling with pandemic shutdowns and economic disruptions.

Through these misrepresentations, he secured about $1.1 million intended to support payroll, rent, and other basic expenses. Instead, prosecutors said, he diverted a substantial portion - roughly $400,000 - into a cryptocurrency venture unrelated to the stated purposes of the loans.

Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York charged Agnello with wire fraud, and in September 2024 he pleaded guilty to a single count. 

At his sentencing, Agnello appeared with family members, including relatives with their own histories of federal convictions. He addressed the judge, calling his actions “wrong, selfish and criminal” and saying he felt deep guilt and shame for what he had done.

Judge Nusrat Choudhury sentenced Agnello to 15 months in prison

plus restitution of over $1.2 Million.

The sentencing followed a delay earlier in 2026, when Agnello’s lawyers told the court he planned to donate a kidney to his mother, Victoria Gotti, the daughter of the late Gambino crime boss. But the kidney donation had not taken place by the time of sentencing, and the judge ultimately rejected a request for home confinement.

Agnello, who was once known as a spiky-haired reality television personality on the A&E show “Growing Up Gotti,” has been ordered to surrender to begin serving his sentence on July 20th.