John Gotti's grandson convicted of COVID related fraud scheme

[0:00] Tonight, a mob boss's grandson behind bars, Carmine Gotti Agnello, convicted of fraud in [0:05] a COVID relief scheme that netted over a million dollars. His grandfather, John Gotti, was the [0:11] head of the Gambino crime family. So how did Agnello try to avoid prison? Your thoughts [0:17] are going to spend year over year in prison. That's all right. Things could be worse. [0:22] The grandson of one of the most notorious gangsters in New York City, becoming the 16th [0:26] member of his family, to go to prison. Carmine Gotti Agnello, pleading guilty to COVID relief fraud, [0:33] lying on applications for financial relief and raking in about a million dollars in loans. [0:38] His life has been wrecked, I would say, over the last few years due to his own actions. [0:44] Victoria Gotti, the daughter of mob boss John Gotti, making an appearance at her son's sentencing [0:48] on Long Island. The legal troubles of Carmine now shining a renewed spotlight on his family [0:54] and their ties to crime, a dynasty built by blood and betrayal. [0:59] The violent death of Paul Castellano brings back to vivid life, an old tradition in the [1:03] history of this country, gangland executions. [1:07] Back in the 70s and 80s, the streets of New York City were ruled by five families. [1:12] The leaders of the five families are all dons, or godfathers, and they all are permanent members [1:17] of the mafia commission. And they together divide up the spoils. They figure out which families, [1:23] which crews, which groups of the mafia will control what industries or parts of industries. [1:30] At the center of the Gambino family, John Gotti, the mafioso, the dapper Don, [1:36] seizing leadership after orchestrating the brazen hit on Paul Castellano, the former head of the family. [1:41] Paul Castellano was on his way to dinner. He didn't even make it to the hors d'oeuvres. [1:46] He ascends to the throne of the Gambino family, at the time perceived to be the most prominent, [1:52] the biggest, the most influential, the most powerful of the five families of the New York [1:56] City Mafia. And he steps out from the shadows in a way that none of his predecessors ever did. [2:04] He basically becomes the leader of the mafia. [2:07] According to authorities, at the height of his power, Gotti stood as one of the most dangerous [2:12] and feared crime bosses in the United States. The press bestowing on him the moniker Teflon Don [2:18] for his ability to avoid prison countless times, with the FBI saying he used methods like witness [2:24] intimidation and jury tampering. [2:26] The mafia is notorious for its colorful nicknames. In the case of John Gotti, the nickname that he got [2:32] was for getting off. They could not put him away. [2:36] Nothing had stuck to the Teflon Don until today. [2:39] Until 1992, when his crimes caught up with him. [2:42] In 1992, John Gotti is finally convicted, but nobody really thought this was going to happen. [2:48] So finally he gets charged with racketeering and a series of murders. [2:52] In this case, they ended up having wiretaps. They had people who turned on Gotti. [2:57] In a stunning betrayal, Sammy Gravano, or Sammy the Bull, Gotti's right-hand man who carried out [3:03] multiple murders on behalf of the kingpin, breaking the mafia's code of silence to testify [3:08] against his former boss. [3:10] When Sammy the Bull turned on John Gotti, it was, first of all, an unbelievable bursting [3:17] of a balloon. Because in the public's mind, Gotti's people would never turn on him. [3:23] They were loyal to him. And that really not only comes from Gotti himself, but from this [3:28] longstanding, ironclad, fundamental rule inside the mafia of Omerta. Silence. [3:35] Gravano later telling ABC News in 1997 his thoughts on Gotti. [3:40] And I realized that John probably eventually would take me out for no other reason, but [3:46] he wants one show, one boss, a John Gotti. [3:51] John Gotti passed away from throat cancer in 2002 behind bars, a world away from the tough, [3:59] gritty scenes that he and his associates oftentimes lived and died by. [4:03] People in the mafia, looking back, those people either in organized crime or near organized crime [4:11] that think back to those days in a positive way, they look back at Gotti as being the last [4:19] of the great dons, the last of the great leaders. [4:22] Gotti's name forever living on through his family, their glamorous lives highlighted on reality [4:28] TV, like Growing Up Gotti, featuring his daughter Victoria and her three sons, including Carmine. [4:34] I guess when we fought, maybe we took it a little too, you know, extreme. [4:37] We don't fight now. [4:38] We're all close, like best friends, brothers, everything. [4:41] Victoria and her family's legacy taking center stage again in the show Mob Wives. [4:45] When somebody gets to that level, that's it. [4:49] They need to be reined in. [4:51] Women should build each other up. [4:55] I find that in my circle, people act the way that I allow them to act. [5:00] Anything you want to say? [5:01] As for Carmine Gotti-Agnello, a judge sentencing the 40-year-old to 15 months in prison and ordering [5:08] him to pay nearly $1.3 million in restitution. [5:11] This isn't something he's proud of. [5:13] I mean, he's sickened by his actions, but he also is hopeful for the future. [5:16] Carmine is expected to surrender himself to authorities in July, his lawyers originally [5:22] asking for a sentence without prison time, saying Carmine hopes to donate his kidney in [5:27] the coming months to save his mom. [5:29] I don't think any of us knows what's going on inside Agnello's mind or Victoria's medical [5:37] situation or what the lawyers are thinking, but it wasn't lost on observers that this had [5:43] some whiff to it that it might have been a Teflon Don move.