Gangland June 1st 2023

[Dr031718]

Ready Or Not: Judge OK's Return Of Turncoat Bonanno Gangster-Turned-Podcaster In Two Months

In a fitting conclusion to a bizarre case in which a hot-headed FBI snitch has been hit with four violations of supervised release in two years, a senior federal judge has underscored his often-eccentric ways by giving turncoat Bonanno gangster turned-podcaster Gene Borrello a free ride for his last two violations, Gang Land has learned.

Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block also seems quite happy to have gotten rid of the case — and the hard-to-control volatile informant — for good.

To do so, Block simply went along with a government request to spare the ex-Howard Beach, Queens gangster a post-prison supervised release term when he gets out of prison in two months. The judge also encouraged Borrello to say nice things about him if he resumes his podcast.

Borrello, 38, had agreed to take a year and a day sentence to resolve a dozen allegations for the two VOSRs. But Judge Block gave him no additional time behind bars after noting that the defendant and a "young lady" he had been living with in Florida had a "love-hate" and "operatic relationship" in which "one of you might kill each other one day."

"If Mozart were alive today, you would be a candidate for one of his great operas," Block told Borrello while he was questioning the ex-gangster last week about his decision to plead guilty to a VOSR charge that related to stalking charges and "domestic violence" allegations that were dropped in a plea deal with the feds.

Block has long acknowledged that as a federal judge, he is something of a nonconformist. He has penned three books since his appointment. On the jacket of his first book, Disrobed, he is described as a "very non-traditional appointee to the federal trial court." In Disrobed, he wrote that he was "sworn in on Halloween" in 1994, which "struck me as an appropriate day to wear my judicial costume for the first time."

The quick-witted jurist wrote plays and Broadway musicals when he was a struggling Suffolk County defense attorney, including Professionally Speaking. He wrote that he celebrated the opening night in 1986 by getting drunk at the Limelight nightclub, whose owner, Peter Gatien, was acquitted of drug dealing at his 1998 trial before Block.

As the judge spoke, he seemed to indicate that he spotted a fellow free spirit in the defendant before him. He told Borrello he could resume his podcasting career when he gets out of stir on August 4. The judge had given Borrello six months for VOSR #2 in February, and four months for VOSR #1 in 2022.

The feds wanted a 12-month sentence to cover VOSR #3 and VOSR #4. Borrello preferred a year and a day sentence, with an automatic "good time" reduction of about 50 days, for a prison term of less than 11 months. Block gave him four months concurrent with his current term which equates to zero time for the VOSRs that dealt with 12 allegations, including crimes of extortion and burglary in addition to the "love-hate" crimes involving his paramour.

After prosecutor Matthew Galeotti told Block that Borrello had agreed to plead guilty to four allegations in VOSR #3, which was lodged last September, and two in VOSR #4, which was filed in January, Block noted he is "probably more familiar" with the case than any other he's handled in 28 years on the bench, and moved quickly to take the six guilty pleas from Borrello.

He admitted the first three allegations in VOSR #3 and Galeotti dropped the fourth one, and six other agreed-upon allegations in the two cases. But getting Borrello to admit he was guilty of two allegations that were related to the "operatic relationship" that he had with his paramour took a while, some gentle cajoling by Block, and some explanatory words from the prosecutor.

When Block asked Borrello to explain "the crime of fleeing to elude law enforcement officers in violation of Florida State Penal Law" on January 18, Borrello said he didn't "know how to explain" it but he would "plead guilty to it."
Block quizzed him about "what he did to elude a law enforcement officer?"
"They're saying they tried to pull me over," he replied.
"I guess the cops are saying they tried to pull me over and I took off on them. So you had pulled over for some reason and you took off?" asked Block.

GB: "I was never pulled over, Your Honor, but yes."
Judge Block: "You know, we got to decide whether you are culpable or not, because I don't want to force you into any of this stuff."
GB: "Yeah. I plead guilty, yes."
Judge Block: "I want to make sure that you're pleading guilty intentionally, with knowledge of the fact that you really are guilty. And if you really have a defense, you don't have to plead guilty. What did you do?"
Gene BorrelloGB: "I was being pulled over and I took off."
Judge Block: "What were you being pulled over for?"
GB: "My girlfriend.
Judge Block: "The police wanted you to stop and you just did not stop?
GB: "Yes.
Judge Block: "You knew that you were supposed to stop and you decided not to do that?
GB: "Yes, Your Honor.
Judge Block: "Are you clear about that?
GB: "Yes.

Prosecutor Galeotti stepped up to explain the last charge, the one that triggered Block to note the "love-hate" and "operatic relationship" that Borrello had with his girlfriend.

"Borrello was instructed not to live with a particular individual with whom he was engaged in," said Galeotti, adding that "he did live with that person," and that did lead to "domestic violence."

At first, Borrello denied he was "told that," stating that "when I went to Florida, my probation officer went to the house and met her and said that was fine."

But after Block stated he would give Borrello his "rights," if he "want(ed) to say not guilty," the defendant admitted he was told "not to live with her" and "not to come into her premises."

GB: "Yes. I was living with her."
Judge Block: "Look, I know you were going back and forth with her."
GB: "Yes.
Judge Block: "I know you have an operatic relationship. And if Mozart were alive today, you would be a candidate for one of his great operas. But I have to know for this proceeding whether or not you did go into her house?
GB: "Yes."
Matthew GaleottiJudge Block: "And you knew you should not do that?"
GB: "Yes."

After establishing Borrello's guilt, Block noted that the two violations were "not the worst that I have seen in my career." He added that sentencing Borrello to additional time behind bars "for violating two conditions of supervised release…almost motivates me to give him concurrent time."

Before the judge imposed sentence, prosecutor Galeotti stressed that the government was not requesting additional supervision, noting that "the idea is not to catch (him) on some small technical violations" but "to see if he can sink or swim on his own at this point."

"I have to confess, I will miss Mr. Borrello," the judge cracked, before noting he was speaking facetiously, and stated: "I agree with the government. I just hope that I'm not going to see him again, actually."

"The podcast," said Block, "There's not going to be any constraints on that at all. So I guess he can have a podcast and do whatever, right?"

That was the "one thing that Probation, the Government and defense counsel all agree on, said Galeotti. "The time for supervision is over," the prosecutor said, adding that if Borrello lives within "all the state, local, and federal laws" in the future, "he'll have a chance to succeed."

If Borrello were to resume his podcast, Block cautioned him against "crossing the line and talking about things which can get you in real trouble again," and followed up by asking: "Do you think you can do that?"
"Yeah," said Borrello.

"You have to be a little careful about that," said Block, noting that he is "probably more familiar" with Borrello's case than any other he's handled in his 28 years on the bench. "You can say good things about Judge Block," he cracked. "You can say good things about your lawyer. You can say good things about the government lawyer," the judge continued.

Borrello didn't express any opinion about the opposing lawyers in the case, but he didn't wait until he resumes his podcast later this year to state his opinion about the judge. He told Block he was a "good judge" right before the 88-year-old jurist meted out his sentence, and said: "There is nothing else. You're not going to have any further supervision. Your life is your own."

Wiseguy Follows Lead Of Lottery Lawyer; Seeks No-Jail Sentence For Lottery Winners Ripoff

His chances are probably about the same as pulling a winning Lottery ticket, but Genovese wiseguy Christopher Chierchio is adopting a tried and true tactic: It never hurts to ask.

Chierchio, who is facing a prison term of five years for his role in the Lottery winners ripoff case, is asking Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis for a no-jail sentence.

It's the same shoot-for-the-moon approach adopted by Lottery Lawyer Jason (Jay) Kurland, who was found guilty of ripping off Lottery winners for a stunning $102 million. Kurland has also told Garaufis that he deserves to go home, not to prison.

Chierchio, a 55-year-old mobster who also faces charges stemming from a long-running construction industry scheme in Manhattan, petitioned Garaufis for a "non-incarceration," sentence in a court filing he submitted last week.

And if the judge can't bring himself to agree to his longshot request for a non-custodial sentence of probation and home incarceration, then the judge should consider a downward departure from the five years he faces to a lesser, more reasonable prison term.

Chierchio, who is slated to face the music in two weeks, based his request on the needs of the mobster's family, specifically his three daughters, his longstanding work ethic, and a government analysis that now places the money he is credited with stealing as less than $25 million.

Citing the government's sentencing memo for Kurland, which asks Garaufis to impose a prison term between 11 and 14 years for the Lottery Lawyer, Chierchio's attorneys noted that the losses that prosecutors attribute to their client's scam totaled $21.5 million, which reduced the low end of his guidelines below five years, to 57 months.

"Chierchio is aware of the need for a sentence of some kind to be imposed," wrote lawyers Anjelica Cappellino, Thomas Harvey and Gerald McMahon. "But we respectfully submit that the four goals of sentencing, (namely) retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation, can be met with a non-incarceration sentence."

Despite numerous ailments, including hypertension, heart disease, Type-2 diabetes, morbid obesity, sleep apnea, and an enlarged prostate, and the loss of his plumbing business, RCI Plumbing, the lawyers wrote that Chierchio "is now employed by Pinnacle Electric, an electrical contractor," whose owner Antony Gironta, values him as a friend and employee.

Chierchio "is mature enough to recognize the error of his ways while also being young enough to potentially change the trajectory of his life," they wrote. "In addition," the attorneys assert, the need to incapacitate and rehabilitate will just as likely be accomplished with minimal prison time and/or alternatives to incarceration such as home detention."

Prosecutors Danielle Kudla, Louis Pellegrino, Olga Zverovich, and Brian Morris, will likely paint Chierchio, who is awaiting trial in Manhattan Supreme Court on bid-rigging charges in the construction industry, as a recidivist criminal. Gang Land expects that they'll ask Garaufis to give the wiseguy the maximum five year prison term that is called for in his plea agreement.

Chierchio can expect to receive a blow back similar to the one the feds delivered in their sentencing recommendation for Kurland.

In opposing Kurland's astounding request for probation for fleecing his clients out of more than $100 million, the prosecutors noted that he was an "officer of the court" who took part in "an egregious fraud scheme" against "three of his largest clients." The feds asked Garaufis to impose a prison term at the "lower end" of his sentencing guidelines, between 135 and 168 months.

Prosecutors argued that such a prison term "would be sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to achieve the purposes of sentencing" the disgraced 50-year-old lawyer, who was a "successful partner at a Long Island law firm, earning approximately $500,000" a year from mid-2018 to mid-2020, when he was stealing his clients' money.

The government lawyers also implored Garaufis to ignore the same bogus argument that Kurland made "at trial," that the jury ignored in convicting him of all five counts he was charged with: that Chierchio, and cooperating witnesses Frangesco (Frankie Boy) Russo and Francis (Frank) Smookler "lied to him (about money they stole) as if that somehow makes his conduct any less criminal."

Kurland, prosecutors insist, was the key factor in the lottery schemes. "But for Kurland's criminal actions," his codefendants "could have never gotten or stolen a penny of Kurland's clients' money," they wrote. "Put simply," the prosecutors wrote, "the massive fraud in this case could not have occurred but for Kurland's decision to lie to and steal from his own clients.

Feds: Mikey Nose 'Owns The Bronx' & Is Guilty Of Violating His Supervised Release

Citing numerous clandestine meetings he had with eight convicted gangsters in 2020 and 2021, and a new recording of a mob capo stating that Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso "owns the Bronx," federal prosecutors argued last week that the Mafia boss had violated his post-prison supervised release by his "deliberate repeated contact" with ex-cons including his underboss John (Johnny Joe) Spirito.

If so, it could mean a trip back to prison for Mancuso who completed a 15 year bid for a mob rubout in 2019.

In their filing with Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, the prosecutors noted that Mancuso had told his probation officer that he met Spirito 36 times in their Bronx neighborhood. Yet the mob boss never mentioned any of the times when the FBI photographed the duo together on Long Island between August and November of 2021.

"It defies common sense," prosecutors Michael Gibaldi and James McDonald argued convincingly, "to believe that all of these meetings between the boss and underboss of the Bonanno family were mere chance encounters when Mancuso lived with his girlfriend in Long Island, while Spirito lived in the Bronx."

In addition to "misinforming the Probation Department that he was simply running into Spirito in the neighborhood," and that he had "incidental" meetings with two other mobsters, Mikey Nose never told his probation officer that he ever met with five other organized crime figures he was captured meeting in FBI photos, including Colombo capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo.

Mancuso not only helped Ricciardo celebrate his 75th birthday at Salvatores of Elmont on October 7, 2020, he also had dinner with Vinny Unions at two other restaurants in 2020 and 2021. He also met with him at RealEyes Optical, the optometry outlet his girlfriend has been operating in Great Neck since 2004.

It was during a tape-recorded telephone call with cooperating witness Andrew Koslosky on April 12, 2021, right after meeting Mancuso at RealEyes, that Ricciardo told the FBI informer that Mikey Nose "owns the Bronx," the prosecutors wrote.

The "owns the Bronx" snippet of the conversation, in which Vinny Unions actually says, "He owns this Bronx, this guy," according to a transcript, occurred after Ricciardo told Koslosky that "He (Mancuso) said, 'Vinny I wanted our number two (Spirito) to meet you because I told this guy you'll do nothing but love him," the prosecutors wrote.

VR: . . . See he knows the Bronx, he's got a lot of guys in the Bronx, this guy.
AK: Yeah.
VR: He owns this Bronx this guy.

Prosecutors also highlighted a taped talk between Koslosky and Ricciardo as evidence that Mancuso also met in violation of his supervised release with Bonanno capos and Colombo mobster Michael Uvino, whom the Bonanno boss had told Probation he had met only at his girlfriend Laura Keller's home, when Uvino lived in a basement apartment there, before Mikey Nose moved in with her.

On April 29, 2021, a day after Mancuso had dinner with Ricciardo and Uvino at the Giulio Cesare restaurant in Westbury, Vinny Unions told Koslosky that he and Uvino had dinner with Mikey nose and several Bonanno skippers, including Jerome Asaro, who were at the restaurant meeting. In a break with Mafia protocol, Bonanno boss Mikey Nose, in the blue shirt, holds the door open for Colombo soldier Uvino as he leaves the Westbury eatery.

Mancuso's final arguments are due on June 9.

Mancuso, who is charged with violating two conditions of supervised release, associating with members or associates of organized crime, and associating with ex-cons, faces up to two years in prison for the offenses.

[Dr031718]

Michael Mancuso & Mike Uvino

[Dapper_Don]

thanks for posting

[CabriniGreen]

Michael Mancuso & Mike Uvino

Looks like he was holding it for the woman to me...

[Allie Boy]

Maybe both. Anyway this will be debated for many years to come

[gohnjotti]

Maybe both. Anyway this will be debated for many years to come

[JohnnyS]

It was during a tape-recorded telephone call with cooperating witness Andrew Koslosky on April 12, 2021, right after meeting Mancuso at RealEyes, that Ricciardo told the FBI informer that Mikey Nose "owns the Bronx," the prosecutors wrote.

I bet Barney and Ernie would disagree with that.

Thanks for posting.

[CabriniGreen]

Maybe both. Anyway this will be debated for many years to come

Lol..... too funny

[CabriniGreen]

I'll say this....

Every recent picture I've seen of Mancuso, he legit looks like a scary guy. Like...nuts

[AntComello]

I'll say this....

Every recent picture I've seen of Mancuso, he legit looks like a scary guy. Like...nuts

Yes I agree dude looks like a crazy fuck

[johnny_scootch]

The Bonanno’s must have a fairly big Bronx crew if not 2 crews in the Bronx. Pogo has Ernie and Patty Maiorino listed as Bronx captains plus the Spirito’s are in the Bronx and you’d have to assume most of the ‘20 friends’ that Spirito Jr made are probably Bronx guys. Saying Mancuso owns the Bronx is probably an accurate statement in a mafia sense.

[Gustazul]

Thanks for sharing today's articles

[Hired_Goonz]

Thanks for posting. This might legit be the first time that Capeci has reported on Mancuso's VSOR case without shoehorning in the judge's "put some meat on this bone here" line.

[sisterray]

Capeci should be paying street tax to Borrello by now.

And didn’t he misidentify the guy walking out of the restaurant with Mancuso? He looks much older than Uvino and the lady that’s apparently accompanying him is also a senior citizen.

[Wiseguy]

The Bonanno’s must have a fairly big Bronx crew if not 2 crews in the Bronx. Pogo has Ernie and Patty Maiorino listed as Bronx captains plus the Spirito’s are in the Bronx and you’d have to assume most of the ‘20 friends’ that Spirito Jr made are probably Bronx guys. Saying Mancuso owns the Bronx is probably an accurate statement in a mafia sense.

I think it's one crew with Aiello as captain. While Maiorino was cited as a captain in the Crea appeal referencing 2013, he was later referred to as a soldier in two Gangland News articles in 2015 and 2016. His rank wasn't identified in his 2016 indictment. Another article referred to him as a soldier in 2017.

The Genovese, Luccheses, and Gambinos all have a larger presence in the Bronx than the Bonannos do.