Gangland 1/25/2024

[Dr031718]

Turncoat Luchese Mobster Who Fleeced Dozens Out Of Millions Has A New Employment Plan: Car Salesman

Would you buy a car from a guy who swindled dozens of folks out of $64 million? Ex-New York gangster Frank Gioia Jr. is hoping the answer is "Yes."

But he's got a few hurdles to get over first. For one thing, the turncoat Luchese mobster has a rap sheet that includes a slew of crimes, including murder. Gioia flipped and landed a sweet deal from the government, and then went on to rebrand himself as "Frank Capri," and pull off a $64 million swindle. That's when he got another sweet deal that cost him less than four years in prison.

Now, Gioia-Capri, 56, is back on the street in Phoenix with a new plan: selling cars. He says that's the job he's most qualified for and the one he wants, now that he's served his time for the $64 million ripoff, and while he's on supervised release.

But that's something the feds in Arizona would rather not happen — at least on their turf.

Gioia-Capri's motives are pure, according to the ex-gangster, and his attorney. In October, Capri finished his five-year federal prison term in six months less than the 51 months it usually takes, and he wants to start paying the $17.7 million in restitution he owes dozens of men and women around the country he swindled as well as the $1.5 million in taxes he owes the IRS.

That's what his attorney Stephen Wallin — he's appointed and paid for by the Court because the $64 million is nowhere to be found and Gioia-Capri is officially indigent — stated last week in a court filing with Phoenix Federal Court Judge John Tuchi.

According to a transcript, which was unsealed months after his sentencing, and obtained by Gang Land, Tuchi noted that he imposed the maximum five year sentence allowable by Capri's plea agreement for the "back-breaking quantum of the harm" that he inflicted on his unsuspecting victims "that ranged from a few hundred thousand dollars to nearly a million in some cases."

Tuchi rejected a plea for three years by Wallin, who stated that Capri was "obsessively devoted to his children" and noted that his mother and father, also a Luchese mobster, who obtained new identities under the Witness Security Program and moved to Arizona with their son when he was released from prison more than 20 years ago, had supported him and written letters on his behalf.

"Frank is quite intelligent," Wallin told Tuchi, and he had passed several prison courses to better himself since his arrest and detention, and the lawyer was confident Capri would turn his life around. "He's very smart and he's very motivated," the lawyer said. "And I have no doubt that he can return to the success that he had as an automobile salesman or some other sort of law-abiding success when he is released."

Wallin told Gang Land he was "too busy" to discuss the kind of work, if any, his client has been doing since his release and to check on how much restitution his client has managed to pay since his release on October 5. Tuchi had ordered Capri to start paying $500 a month towards it two months after his release, and continue them for 34 more months. He was also ordered to pay $50 a month towards his $200 in court costs. All told, that comes to $17,200, more than $19 million short of the money he's agreed to pay in restitution and back taxes.

"He hasn't been charged with violating his supervised release so I'm sure he's doing okay," said Wallin.

But in his filing, the lawyer wrote that Capri has been "under considerable financial strain, and is unable to meet his restitution payment schedule" because his probation officer has "forbidden" him from working as an automobile salesman because he wrongly believes the job requires Capri to make financial decisions for clients that violate a special condition of his supervised release.

Capri's guilty plea covered a massive multi-million dollar bust-out scheme in which he opened and closed branded restaurants in the names of country music stars Toby Keith and Rascal Flatts in cities across the country from 2008 to 2017. He is barred from engaging in any "occupation in which (he is) responsible for the management of financial transactions or fiduciary responsibility."

But that's not a problem, his lawyer argued. "As an automobile salesman," Wallin wrote, his client would "not be 'responsible for the management of financial transactions' (and) would not make decisions regarding the extension of credit." Capri would only "be responsible for depositing customer funds into any financial institution," the lawyer wrote.

"At most," Wallin told Tuchi, "he would be responsible for taking a credit application — which the customer has completed — walking it over to the finance department, and then conveying the credit manager's decision to the customer. He would not even make decisions on vehicle prices or customer counter-offers."

In his letter motion, Wallin did not explain exactly what duties Capri would have as a car salesman, or if it was a hoped-for gig or a concrete job offer from an automobile dealership. The lawyer asked Tuchi to remove or modify the special conditions the Judge had imposed for Gioia-Capri during his three years of supervised release.

"It is difficult to see why Mr. Capri should be prohibited from such a sales position, or how such a position would fit into the text and intent" of the post-prison supervised release of his client, the lawyer wrote. "The field of automobile sales," Wallin added, "is by far the most remunerative lawful marketable skill he possesses, and one in which he has significant experience."

Federal prosecutor Monica Klapper has also opposed Capri's proposed job as a car salesman but has not yet filed her objection with the Court.

Gioia relocated to Arizona after the feds credited him with helping to convict more than 70 mobsters, drug dealers and a cop killer. But as Capri, he soon engaged in the huge bust-out scam, a crime spree that was first exposed in 2017 by Arizona Republic reporter Robert Anglen, who also revealed Gioia's prior life as a New York mobster.

When the feds finally got around to indicting him in 2020, Capri was driving a Black 2013 Lexus that was owned by his mom and living in a hotel when he was arrested on fraud and money laundering charges between 2008 and 2017.

Over the years, the feds stated in court filings, Capri had "owned many high-end vehicles" that were not registered in his name over the years, but in the name of his mother, who had relocated from New York and was using the name Debbie Corvo.

In an affidavit, IRS agent Brad Palmer stated that Capri had owned "three Ferraris, an Infiniti, a Bentley, a Rolls Royce, a Land Rover, a BMW and a Cadillac Escalade" as well as diamonds, artwork, and properties from Chicago to California that he had sold off or transferred to unknown accounts that he allegedly controlled.

Investigators had also determined, Palmer wrote, that Capri's sister, who was not charged, "kept some of the diamonds in the event Capri needed to access them at a later time," and that "some of the artwork" and "the majority of these high value items have been sold."

Of the millions of dollars he made from his fraud schemes, the feds were only able to seize and confiscate $500,000, according to a government filing.

Capri pleaded guilty to stealing $12,997,478 he received "to construct and operate a chain of restaurants" named for musician Toby Keith in 2008. The restaurants were never built, and from 2015 to 2017 Capri went on to steal $5,035,225 in funds that he raised from investors who were told the money would be used to build and open restaurants licensed by the Rascal Flatts band.

His mom, who pleaded guilty to helping her son fleece investors between 2012 and 2017, was fined $2000 and given one year of supervised release for her role in the scheme.

Quiet Dom Cirillo, Boxer, Acting Genovese Boss, Checks Out At 94

Dominick (Quiet Dom) Cirillo, a former professional boxer out of East Harlem who served as the acting boss for the late Vincent (Chin) Gigante and was a conduit between Gigante's West Side crew and the East Harlem faction headed for years by Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno, has died of natural causes at the ripe old age of 94.

Cirillo died on January 14. His last troubles with the law were part of a racketeering indictment that accused him of teaming up with then-capo and former acting boss Lawrence (Little Larry) Dentico, and two other capos on numerous extortion conspiracies between 1995 and 2005. The conviction cost him about three years behind bars,

Cirillo, who quietly made a big name for himself as a wiseguy, was a complete bust as a boxer, losing all seven fights he had. He told former FBI agent Mike Campi about his brief career as a pugilist in short, one word answers he gave during a court ordered interview to obtain a voice sample from him back in the 1980s.

Mike CampiQ. How many fights did you have?
A. Seven.
Q. Fight anyone I know?
A. Jake LaMotta.
Q. How'd you do in your other fights?
A. The same.

In March 2005, Quiet Dom's last trouble with the law began when he was was indicted along with Dentico and capos Anthony (Tico) Antico and John (Johnny Sausage) Barbato. Cirillo, then 76, was alleged to have been playing a major role in running the crime family at that time, with major help from Little Larry, then 83, in the wake of racketeering convictions of Chin Gigante and the family's current boss, Liborio (Barney) Bellomo.

Since three of the defendants were detained as dangers to the community, their strategy sessions on how to deal with the case were conducted in the Metropolitan Detention Center. Barbato, the lone defendant released on bail, would make it into the always crowded MDC, where their sessions were often conducted in the visitor's room.

A few months into this process, Barbato and Antico were listening patiently one day as Quiet Dom and Little Larry, who were both feared and highly-respected members of Chin's Greenwich Village faction, kept deferring to each other on whether they should take a plea deal or fight the case. It was a decision that Johnny Sausage and Tico would have to go along with.

After hearing Cirillo say, "No, Larry what do you want to do?" and Dentino reply, "No Dom, what do you want to do?" more than a few times, Barbato respectfully interrupted. "Excuse me," he said, "can I say something here?'

"Of course," Cirillo and Dentico said in unison.

"I vote we take the plea," said Barbato, which encouraged Antico to chime in. "I think we should take the plea. If we go to trial and lose, you fellows may get real heavy sentences."

A few months later, in October of 2005, the foursome copped guilty pleas. Barbato and Antico each got 30 months. Little Larry, who sources say is still with us at the age of 101, and living in the Sunshine State, got the heaviest sentence, 51 months. Quiet Dom took 46 months, was released in August of 2008, and had no further trouble with the law.

But he had plenty of trouble on the homefront. In May of 2004, Cirillo's son Nicholas, 41, a heavy drug user, disappeared and was feared killed after an altercation he had with Bonanno mobster Dominick Cicale and Vincent Basciano Jr. The body of Nicholas Cirillo was never found, but law enforcement and underworld sources say that Quiet Dom had a hand in his son's death.

"Dom either okayed it or was told about it and refused to stop it," said a law enforcement source. "That's pretty much what I think," was the wisdom espoused by an underworld source.

Less than a year after Nicholas Cirillo, who was estranged from his dad, disappeared, Basciano Jr.'s dad, former acting Bonanno boss Vinny Gorgeous, was tape recorded stating that Quiet Dom had authorized the murder of his son.

Basciano said that in January of 2005, when turncoat Mafia boss Joseph Massino asked him whether the Bonannos had killed Cirillo. Vinny Gorgeous, who had been arrested six months after Cirillo's murder, told the man he thought was still his Mafia boss, that they hadn't.

"That came from Dom, that came from Dom," said Basciano. "Did we have anything to do with that?" asked Massino. "Absolutely not," said Basciano.

At Basciano's trial for the murder of Randy Pizzolo in 2011, Massino was asked about that conversation during his testimony. "He's telling me that Quiet Dom killed his son," Massino said.

Cirillo was interred as Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale Friday, following a funeral mass at St. Theresa's Church and a brief 90-minute wake at the Balsamo Funeral Home in The Bronx.

East Harlem Restaurant Owner Helps Spring Accused Mob Associate Out Of The MDC

The owner of a popular East Harlem restaurant came to the rescue of jailed Gambino associate Kyle (Twin) Johnson and helped extricate him from the Metropolitan Detention Center after he spent two months and three major holidays behind bars, Gang Land has learned.

If you guessed Rao's, you'd be wrong.

It was Giselle Malave, the owner of Sapoara, the Latin American restaurant a couple of blocks away on 116th Street and First Avenue who vouched for Johnson and promised to employ him at the eatery if the judge released him on bail.

Malave's pitch — and her willingness to cosign a $250,000 bond for Johnson — convinced Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block to release Johnson from the MDC while he awaits trial.

Malave tends bar, greets diners and does just about everything else except the cooking at Sapoara, which boasts of classic Latin recipes as well as "new-age kitchen adventures" on its website. Along with her husband Jeff, the head chef, they opened the restaurant in 2017. Malave told Block she knew Johnson for seven years and would "attest to his character, integrity and strong ties to the community."

After the judge interviewed Malave two weeks ago, she did her pal an even bigger favor: She agreed to cosign a $250,000 bond to guarantee that Johnson would not run away or be a danger to the community once he was released. The next day, on January 12, after Malave, Johnson's brother, as well as a long-time friend cosigned the bond, Johnson, 46, was released.

"He has shown to be trustworthy, reliable and honest," Malave wrote in a letter submitted by Johnson's attorney. "During the Corona virus pandemic of 2020," she wrote, "Kyle would stop by the restaurant after getting out of work and help with everything from food shopping to the preparation of ingredients, cooking the food, packaging it and even the delivery to some of the locations" they were serving.

Johnson was charged in early November with racketeering along with Gambino capo Joseph (Joe Brooklyn) Lanni and eight others. His co-defendants soon went home, thanks to help from relatives and friends who secured their bonds with expensive homes or other property. But in December, Judge Block detained Johnson after he was unable to come up with cash or properties sufficient to secure a hefty bond.

The judge agreed to revisit the issue when Johnson's court-appointed lawyer, Paula Notari, stated in a court filing that she had "put together a more robust bail package." The package included Malave, the co-owner of Sapoara, which cooks, prepares and delivers meals to needy East Harlem residents in conjunction with Manhattan Community Board 11, of which Malave is a member, the attorney wrote.

For the time being though, Block ruled that Johnson will be confined to his Bronx home "without permission to work." The judge indicated he would entertain a motion to modify his conditions and allow him to work at the restaurant if he gets favorable reports from pretrial services about the defendant's conduct while on home detention.

Johnson is not alleged to have carried out any violent assaults, but is charged with extortion for assisting Gambino soldier Diego (Danny) Tantillo in enlisting other codefendants in repeated extortion attempts in 2020 that included arson and assaults against the owners of two demolition companies.

Prosecutors say Johnson was an active member of the racket.

"Johnson is a longstanding associate of the Gambino crime family who repeatedly assisted Tantillo" in several extortion attempts "by finding individuals to damage" trucks owned by a Tantillo business rival and in October of 2020 had overseen an assault of his worker, say prosecutors Matthew Galeotti, Anna Karamigios and Andrew Roddin.

On October 29, 2020, the prosecutors wrote, an unknown assailant was sent by Tantillo and Johnson to "violently assault" a rival demolition worker at his office with a hammer."Minutes later," the prosecutors wrote, "Johnson texted Tantillo three thumbs-up emojis" along with the words, "work today."

Johnson, along with his nine codefendants, including mobster James (Jimmy) Laforte, who was detained by a Philadelphia federal judge as a danger to the community in a Philadelphia case, is due back in court in March.

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting.

I was hoping Jerry would have some recent info on Cirillo.

[DonPeppino386]

Thanks for posting. Amazing to learn that Dentico is still alive.

[sharpieone]

Thanks for posting.

I was hoping Jerry would have some recent info on Cirillo.

Same. I’d think that means Dom was largely inactive for awhile but who knows.

[jmack]

Thanks for posting.

I was hoping Jerry would have some recent info on Cirillo.

Same. I’d think that means Dom was largely inactive for awhile but who knows.

I agree. He got out of prison around 80 years old the last time and probably had all the money he would ever need by that point. I assume he probably wasn’t involved in the day to day running of the family.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post.

[Little_Al1991]

Thanks for posting