Gangland 10/28/21

[Dr031718]

Sal Romano: Gambino Gangster To Mafia Deacon To Gangster Again

Salvatore RomanoGang Land Exclusive!Salvatore Romano has a new name, and a new home town. But the fabled Ponzi schemer who made bundles of cash running a $40 million stock fraud scheme for the Gambino family in the late 1990s, has been up to his old tricks again. This time, Gang Land has learned, he ripped off a gaggle of investors out of $3.1 million in healthcare scams he ran from his new home base in West Palm Beach.

Goodbye Sal Romano, Hello Salvatore Renaldi. That's the name he took after turning on the mob and what he called himself when he pleaded guilty to stealing $1.5 million in a scheme that ran from 2011 to 2015 as he duped victims who thought they were investing in firms called the Sanctum Group of Companies. The ex-gangster also admitted stealing another $1.6 million from 2017 to 2019 from the same "investors" in the Magnum Companies, another alleged Renaldi entity.

In between those dazzling cons, in 2016, Romano penned a 250 page book titled, The Mafia Deacon: My Journey from Gangster to the Calling of a Catholic Deacon. In the book, he thanked God for setting him straight, without mentioning any scams he ran after he flipped, including one he allegedly began the same year he entered the Witness Security Program.

The Mafia DeaconThat happened in San Diego, his first new home town, when he began ripping off "investors" in 2004, the same year he pleaded guilty to orchestrating and running a $40 million fraud for the mob and began cooperating with the FBI and federal prosecutors in New York, according to federal court filings in the Sunshine State.

In The Mafia Deacon, Romano wrote that the feds gave him and his wife Marian $3500 a month in cash in September of 2004, set them up in a "three bedroom condo in a gated community" in San Diego, and "vouched" for their kids so they could enter Catholic schools without a grades transcript. Having avoided a much tougher gated community by cooperating with the feds, Romano began a successful new consulting business there. The deacon also took a vow, as he wrote, "to never break the law again for as long as I lived."

The devil quickly won that match. Miami assistant U.S. attorney Yisel Valdes says Romano started breaking the law again that same year. He eventually used some of the money he stole in the Florida-based scams to "make Ponzi-payments" to investors in "a prior offering that he managed" called The Renaldi Group, Inc. that he set up in San Diego in 2004. That investment firm also failed, Valdes wrote.

Michale DiLeonardo & Salvatore RomanoRomano-Renaldi, 56, pleaded guilty in Ft. Lauderdale Federal Court on October 6 to wire fraud charges in a plea deal calling for a longer prison term than the 16 months he served for his conviction for his $40 million Ponzi scheme. He admitted acting illegally as a broker in the Sanctum scheme because he was banned from that activity by a 1993 conviction for security fraud. In the Magnum scheme, Renaldi told Judge Roy Altman, he had falsely told investors he would use their money to build diabetes clinics.

In a court filing, Valdes wrote that Renaldi "would tell victims that the Sanctum companies got structured into Magnum companies" and would convince the "victim investors that if they invested in the Magnum companies, he would be able to pay them back for their unpaid Sanctum investments."

"When victims would contact the defendant to ask about why they had not been paid for their Sanctum investments," Valdes continued, Renaldi would "pitch them on the new Magnum scheme" and "ask the victims to roll over their Sanctum investment into the new Magnum investment."

Romano always was a "brilliant" con man, recalled former capo Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo, a longtime crony who fingered Romano to the feds after he flipped in 2002. "Sal's got a gift for getting into people's pockets, there's no question about that," he told Gang Land. "The guy is brilliant, but his brilliance is misplaced."

Romano-Renaldi faces a recommended prison term between 63 to 78 months according to the estimated sentencing guidelines in his plea agreement. He also has agreed to make restitution of $3.1 million. But it's unlikely that he'll be forking over much, if any cash, when he faces the music in January.

John A GottiAt his arraignment for wire fraud in August of 2020, Judge Altman found Renaldi, who had been a fugitive for three months, to be indigent. Altman ordered him released on a $300,000 personal recognizance bond cosigned by his wife, and assigned the federal defender's office to represent him. Prosecutor Valdes and defense attorney Robert Adler declined to discuss Renaldi's finances or the circumstances of his arrest with Gang Land.

Romano, who linked many Gambino mobsters to his stock fraud scheme when he turned on the mob, was listed as a trial witness against John A. (Junior) Gotti for ordering the shooting of Curtis Sliwa, but wasn't called. At the time, a member of the prosecution team said prosecutors decided not to use his testimony because they believed "it wasn't needed." But a law enforcement source, who did not know about The Renaldi Group scam, told Gang Land this week that the feds also knew "Sal had a lot of baggage."

The Mafia Deacon was never published. But in a copy of the manuscript,, dated December 2016, that Gang Land obtained, Romano never mentioned The Renaldi Group, or that he had pulled off a Ponzi scheme in San Diego after he flipped. He also didn't mention The Sanctum Companies scam, or another uncharged scheme that prosecutor Valdes cited in his court filing. So much for confessions.

Sal Romano, Marian Romano & Trevor McDonaldThe next year, in an effort to promote himself, get his book published and create interest in a movie about his life, Romano and his wife invited legendary British TV journalist, Sir Trevor McDonald into their West Palm Beach home and talked about their lives while they had more money than they could count, and when the bottom dropped out.

As they watched a video of Paul Anka dancing cheek to cheek with Marian as he sang a special version of My Way he wrote to honor Sal, Marian said that when she watches it, she "usually get(s) very emotional because it brings back a lot of happy memories (about) a lot of people that we're not even friends with anymore that I see on the tape, and people that are not with us anymore. But that was just an amazing night."

"Looking at occasions like this" must have convinced you, said McDonald, "that you have the world at your feet."
"Yeah, absolutely," said Romano. "That's how I thought. And that's what fueled me."
"What did you think about that, Marian, did you enjoy that side of the line?"
"Yeah," said Marian. "I loved this part of it. I miss that a little bit."

Paul Anka & Marian Romano"She was drinking the Kool-Aid," laughed Romano. "Everything that surrounded my life, both good and bad, she bought into. I mean, she was okay with that. I kept her in the dark with a lot of it. So it's not that she was privy to everything, but all the good stuff, it's easy to buy in and sit back and enjoy it. If you enjoyed it when it was happening, you have to take the good with the bad."

Trevor: "Did you know how much Sal was earning?
Marian: "Yeah."
Sal: "Everybody knew. I pretty much talked about it. Plus," he continied, "my business was very, very focused on cash, cash, cash, meaning green. So it wasn't, 'Oh my goodness, how are we going to make it?' It's, 'What the heck do we do with it?'"

Trevor: "How did you store such stacks (of cash?)
Sal: "I had a special specific contractor (who) built hotspots throughout the house. There'd be a box that was probably three feet by three feet deep. I knew the exact amount I can store in there. If they were all twenties, I can hold upwards of $600,000 there. And then he created three or four spots like this. So at any given time, I could have as much as probably $2 million in cash."

In The Mafia Deacon, Romano wrote that they moved into their "$5 Million Dream Home" on Staten Island's Todt Hill in March of 1998. It had a "two-foot by two-foot" stash box in a full size attic in a cedar closet that was hidden beneath a tile and plywood floor where he "would store upwards of a half a million dollars in cash at any given time."

Sal Romano & Paul AnkaThe ground floor "had 35 foot high ceilings" and "featured wall-to-wall imported marble" in the living room and dining room and a "beautiful kitchen," a family room, his "library-office and a guest room," wrote Romano. There were also nine bathrooms, "exquisite hand-crafted custom moldings made specifically for each room," and "underground radiant heating throughout."

To get around, he paid "well over half a million dollars" in cash for a handful of cars, which included an $80,000 Lincoln Navigator SUV for family excursions, and his and hers S500 Mercedes, black for Sal, and navy blue for Marian, Romano wrote.

"For fun and speed, I had purchased a turbo Porsche Cabriolet convertible that cost about $165,000," he wrote. "I was living a fast life and I enjoyed fast expensive cars that went with it. I was riding high, hoping that it would all continue. It would for a little while, but like the possibility with all fast cars, I too would be vulnerable for a crash."

That would come six years later. In The Mafia Deacon, the way Romano summed up his situation in 2004, pretty well sums up his current station in life. "If you play with fire, you are going to get burned," he wrote. "I have played with fire in my life, and I got burned."

Loanshark Victim Set To Face The Music In Bizarre Fallout Of The Lovesick Capo Case

Albert MasterjosephFederal prosecutors say that Albert Masterjoseph, a codefendant of lovesick Colombo capo Joseph Amato, is a mob associate who pleaded guilty to a loansharking conspiracy charge with sentencing guidelines calling for a minimum of 21 months behind bars. But it's hard to imagine him receiving any time in prison when he faces the music for his crime next week.

His crime, the prosecutors say, was being along for the ride back in 2019 when mobster Thomas (The Plumber) Scorcia, who was feeling his wiseguy oats after his induction into the crime family, went to visit rival loanshark Dominick (The Lion) Ricigliano. Scorcia arrived with a long list of gripes, including a past assault on Scorcia, vandalizing his office, and stealing his loanshark customers in 2017. Threats were made by The Plumber against The Lion during the visit, according to the feds, but Masterjoseph never even got out of the car.

Thomas ScorciaIn a rare departure from the norm, the prosecutors did not ask Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan to sentence Masterjoseph within the agreed-upon guidelines of 21-to-27 months. They note that the participation by Masterjoseph was "limited," that he lacked "any role in (the) decision-making" by The Plumber, and "that his role in the offense was a result of a loansharking debt he owed to Scorcia."

Prosecutors Elizabeth Geddes and Megan Farrell didn't even ask for a prison term. The sentence, they wrote, "should reflect the nature and characteristics of the offense, the history and characteristics of the defendant," and "reflect the seriousness of the offense, to promote respect for the law, to provide just punishment, to afford adequate deterrence and to protect the public."

They should have stated that Masterjoseph, 59, was a loanshark victim who paid "juice" for two years on a $25,000 loan, and should be sent home with a non-custodial sentence, told it's not a good idea to borrow money from mob loansharks, and to have a good life. They know now that Masterjoseph went along with The Plumber under duress, and probably should not have been indicted in the first place.

As it turns out, Masterjoseph had met Scorcia in 2014 when he was seeing a woman whose sister was married to Scorcia, and he saw The Plumber "a few times when attending his girlfriend's family's barbeques" over the years, according to the uncontested facts in a court filing by defense lawyer David Gordon.

Judge Brian CoganThe attorney wrote that Masterjoseph was "aware of Scorcia's loan-sharking activities" but that "he and Scorcia had no other social relationship or contact" and that his client had no relations "at all with any of the other defendants in this case."

In 2017, Gordon wrote, Masterjoseph "borrowed $25,000 from Scorcia to help pay for his daughter Rose's wedding." He "paid interest weekly, but was never able to repay the loan," and possessed a full "understanding [of] the consequences if he failed to pay the weekly interest on the loan." The lawyer did not state how much "juice" he paid, but even at a discounted "two points" (2%) a week, Masterjoseph would have paid more than $50,000 in interest, and still owed The Plumber $25,000.

"When Scorcia asked him to 'go for a ride' in February and April, 2019," Gordon wrote, "Masterjoseph understood that he was being asked to accompany him because of his threatening physical appearance, in order to frighten whoever Scorcia planned to meet" and "that it was wrong" for him to do so.

But Masterjoseph went along, the lawyer insisted, "based upon fear of the possible consequences if he refused and Scorcia's assurances that he would not be asked to engage in any violence."

Joseph Amato"Masterjoseph insists that without those assurances," the lawyer wrote, "that he would not have participated despite his fears, and also insists that he would not have participated in violent conduct had Scorcia reneged on the assurances he had given Mr. Masterjoseph and asked him to engage in violence."

Noting that the government had acknowledged that "Masterjoseph had no vested interest in Scorcia's debt collection or intimidation" and that he "exercised no authority over the other defendants" in the case, Gordon argued that a prison term within the guidelines, "or for that matter any custodial sentence, would be considerably greater than necessary" in the case.

Finally, if he was even a half-baked mob associate named Masterjoseph, he would definitely have a nickname.

Last week, Judge Cogan sentenced Amato, the wiseguy whose over-the-top concerns to keep tabs on his girlfriend are what led to Masterjoseph's scheduled sentence, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for stalking her and for a slew of other racketeering crimes.

Mush Russo Should Be Going Home Soon

Andrew RussoMafia boss Andrew (Mush) Russo and Domenick Ricciardo, a burly Colombo family associate who is charged as a key player in the crime family's 20-year-long extortion of the leader of a Queens based construction workers union, are likely to be released on bail in the coming days following rulings by two federal judges in Brooklyn.

Yesterday, following a long protracted teleconference proceeding which ended with the ailing 87-year-old Russo finally being connected and uttering a one-word "yes" response to a series of questions about his expected release on home detention, Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak ordered his release on a $10 million bail package secured by $7 million in property.

Since his arrest six weeks ago, Russo, who had been in a car accident three weeks earlier, has spent more time at an undisclosed nursing home and an area hospital than he has at the Metropolitan Detention Center. The MDC has determined that it is unable to handle the wiseguy's numerous ailments, including dementia and suspected Alzheimer's disease.

Russo joined the telephonic session after Judge Pollak had already decided to release Mush under strict home detention with electronic monitoring of every device in the complex where he lives in Glen Head after the judge's clerk confirmed a phone connection with a private security guard who was guarding Russo at a hospital to hand him the telephone.

Domenick RicciardoExcept for a brief exchange in the beginning of the discussion, and a second one at the end, the wiseguy answered with a gravely "Yes" that he understood he was being released on house arrest and that if he violated any of the conditions she set or committed any crimes he would "go back to jail."

Here are a few excerpts of the back and forth.

Mr. Russo?
Yes.
Hi. This is Judge Pollak. I am here with your attorneys . . . and with the government prosecutors.
You're not here.
No, I'm on the phone. Everyone is on the phone. You understand me?
Yes.

Jodge Allyne RossI am going to release you on bond back to your home. Do you understand that?
Yes.
Can I put your signature on the bond for you?
I don't understand what you mean.
You're in the hospital. You can't do that. Can I put your signature on the bond?
If you want to.
Is that okay with you?
Yes.

It may take a few days, but as soon as his friends and relatives put up their $7 million in properties as collateral Mush will be released on bail to await his trial, sometime next year, at the earliest.

Vincent (Vinny Unions) RicciardoFollowing two bail hearings for Ricciardo, Judge Allyne Ross ordered him released on strict home detention provided that he can obtain someone who is not related to him or any member of the crime family to sign a $150,000 personal recognizance bond assuring that he will not engage in any violence toward any witnesses against him or any of his codefendants.

On Monday, Ross toughened the conditions that Magistrate Ramon Reyes had set last week. She also disqualified Ricciardo's cousin, a mother of three whom his lawyer had proposed as a suretor after prosecutor Devon Lash disclosed that she was the daughter of codefendant Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo, the alleged prime mover in the union extortion scheme.

Lawyer Robert Caliendo stated that he hadn't asked who her father was and didn't know she was Vincent's daughter and argued that it shouldn't matter but Judge Ross said it did.

"There must be someone out there who isn't a Colombo who this defendant knows who is willing to cosign a bond," she said. "I just cannot imagine there can be no one in his life who can do that. I am going to require it."

When lawyer Caliendo sounded much less certain, and asked if he might be able to come up with a counter proposal if he was unable to find one, the judge made it pretty clear that he had better do that if he wanted to get his client released on bail. "You will be very hard pressed to persuade me that there is no one," she said.

[nizarsoccer]

Holy $10m bail for Mush that he secured with $7m in property. Dude must be kicking himself, that 10k a month was definitely not worth it.

[CabriniGreen]

Holy $10m bail for Mush that he secured with $7m in property. Dude must be kicking himself, that 10k a month was definitely not worth it.

It's just like Campos.... short term gain for long term loss... hustling backwards

[joeycigars]

Mush wasnt thinking this one through 10 million bail ????, Merlinos bail was 5 million few years back , Inflation is a bitch for bail too, and I was complaining about meat prices to my wife

[TommyGambino]

So mush and his family are loaded?

[Tonyd621]

So mush and his family are loaded?

I would assume so. That is probably one of the highest bail package I have ever seen someone come up with. Actually, it's the highest ever I've seen

[Ryan98366]

He’s 86 and in a hospital. The guy has stiff tall for all his convictions. $10,000,000 is ridiculous. The Feds and these bail amounts are outrageous.

[SolarSolano]

He’s 86 and in a hospital. The guy has stiff tall for all his convictions. $10,000,000 is ridiculous. The Feds and these bail amounts are outrageous.

Criminal Justice is a major industry - most of these bail bond agencies are private equity-backed companies, as are most of the prisons and services within the prisons. They lobby to keep this bullshit in place so they can keep profiting. That said, Mush is a mob boss and while he's 87, he is clearly very dangerous and in charge of a lot of people who can commit violence so I don't dispute that figure.

[jimmy_beans8]

Gigantes son had a high bond also

[slimshady_007]

10 million bail for a case w no violence? Thats ridiculous.

[Hired_Goonz]

Thanks for posting. I wonder which book is better: Mafia Deacon or From Capo to Christian?

[mafiastudent]

Also ridiculous is that they're chaining this guy to a bed 24/7 while he's in jail in a locked cell and hasn't even been proven guilty yet. Are child molesters and rapists treated this way?

[TallGuy19]

Hmm, a former mobster/con artist who cooperated and "found God" but then continued scheming, where have I heard that one before?

[OcSleeper]

Also ridiculous is that they're chaining this guy to a bed 24/7 while he's in jail in a locked cell and hasn't even been proven guilty yet. Are child molesters and rapists treated this way?

Must of missed the part where it said he's held in an area hospital and nursing homes for the majority of his arrest

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for posting Dr.

...Inflation is a bitch for bail too, and I was complaining about meat prices to my wife

10 million bail for a case w no violence? Thats ridiculous.

Yup.