Gangland February 6th 2025

[Dr031718]

He's A Mob Associate, But Not A Bookmaker; He Got Probation For Illegal Gambling

Ever since he sold Carmelo (Carmine Pizza) Polito a car 25 years ago, Mark Feuer's been a friend of the Genovese wiseguy. But Feuer insists that's all he is — just a friend — not a mob associate. He also insists he's not a bookmaker like the feds say. And he argued last week that he didn't deserve jail time for illegal gambling because he was mostly a losing bettor who only helped a friend get an account with his bookie.

Feuer prevailed over the more serious allegation by the feds, since it meant potential jail time: that he was a bookie. As a result, he received probation for assisting Polito's gambling business by setting up accounts for another gambler (who like Feuer, lost most of the time, and usually gave his losses to Feuer who then turned them over to Carmine Pizza.)

But Feuer lost his motion to not be classified a mob associate. He had told the court that Polito was the only reputed mobster he ever spoke to. His lawyer, Gary Farrell, pointed out that Feuer and Polito had mutual interests, things like "quality dining, poker and sports." Not only that, he insisted that Feuer had never met the duo's three codefendants until the day of their arrest three years ago.

That didn't fly. Brooklyn Federal Judge Eric Vitaliano ruled that merely being "a friend" of a made man was enough in this case.

However, Vitaliano rejected the argument by prosecutors Anna Karamigios and Sean Sherman that Feuer deserved the "high end" of his sentencing guidelines — six months in prison — because he had claimed in his sentencing memo that he was not a bookmaker.

The judge noted that Feuer had claimed he was not a bookmaker at a wild and wooly Friday evening proceeding that began at 5 PM back in April. That was when Feuer pleaded guilty to illegal gambling with the approval of the prosecutors after Polito had copped a plea deal to racketeering charges in the case.

Vitaliano chided Sherman, who took the heat for himself and Karamigios, for objecting to Feuer's insistence that he wasn't a bookmaker in their sentencing memo, pointing out that the government "didn't object" to Feuer saying "exactly the same thing" when he pleaded guilty to illegal gambling at the end of that long day on April 5.

"I have the minutes up here, you should have them too," Vitaliano said. The judge reminded Sherman that he had called a "time out" that day so Feuer could compose himself after the defendant blew his stack and accused the prosecutors and FBI of framing him as a bookmaker. Feuer had also fumed aloud that his lawyer was forcing him to lie to the court to satisfy a global plea deal in the case.

Vitaliano also reminded the prosecutors that the court didn't accept Feuer's guilty plea until after Sherman had quizzed Feuer about what he did to commit the crime of illegal gambling. This began with Feuer stating he wasn't a bookmaker, according to the minutes of the proceeding:

"I did gamble and I did facilitate a player to get involved with a bookmaker," said Feuer. "I did do that. I was not a bookmaker, but I did facilitate it. And I understand now that that's illegal and against the law, and I truly apologize for taking up everybody's time. It was over $2,000 in one day."

After Feuer had told Vitaliano that "the betting was on sports," the judge asked the prosecutor: "Mr. Sherman, is there anything else that is essential?"

"Yes, Your Honor," Sherman began, according to the transcript. "There are a few additional things just to hit on the essential elements. If the defendant can just clarify, when he says facilitate."
Feuer: I introduced him. I didn't actually introduce him. I, actually, me, personally set up his account with the bookmaker. I actually did that.
Sherman: And then just with respect to the essential elements, the $2,000 in more than one day, it also had to have been in continuous operation for a period of greater than 30 days.
Vitaliano: The bookmaking operation?
Feuer: Yes. I'll say yes to that. I will say yes to that.
Sherman: And it also was an illegal sports gambling business that you were involved with between 2018 and 2020?
Feuer: I played on it. I did not own or operate it, sir. I did play on it, yes.

Sherman: The conduct we are discussing, right, your facilitation by setting up the account, was it in 2018 to 2020?
Feuer: Yes.
Sherman: And it was in the Eastern District of New York?
Feuer: Yes.
Sherman: Did it involve five or more people?
Feuer: The total operation?
Sherman: Yes.
Feuer: Yes. Yes.
Sherman: Yes, we are satisfied, Your Honor. Thank you.
Vitaliano: Then the Court is satisfied as well.

In their sentencing memo, the prosecutors stated that Feuer earned "approximately one-third of all profits from" Polito's business "in exchange for managing the operations of the website" for Carmine Pizza. When Feuer "and Polito were owed money" by losing gamblers, "the defendant and Polito would threaten individuals with physical harm," the feds stated.

But the prosecutors remained mum, and didn't counter Farrell's retort last week, that Feuer never threatened anyone or had any financial interest in the gambling business.

And in the end it was much ado over very little: Vitaliano sentenced Feuer to two years probation with no fine or forfeiture.

Feds: Bazoo Threatened A Buck Naked Witness; Worse, He Dated Junior Gotti's Sister-In-Law

Federal probation officials in Brooklyn say that Bonanno soldier John (Bazoo) Ragano should face up to six and a half more years in prison for his Naked City Loansharking conviction for a bunch of reasons, including the fact that he once dated the sister-in-law of former acting Gambino boss John (Junior) Gotti, Gang Land has learned.

We kid you not. That hard to fathom factoid is one of the many accusations that probation officials have cited in their Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) to Brooklyn Federal Judge Hector Gonzalez that determined that the sentencing guidelines for the wiseguy are 63-to-78 months, according to a court filing by Ragano's lawyers.

The brief note, stating: "Notably, [the sister of the person Ragano was dating in 2022] is married to John Gotti, Jr.," appears in the PSR under a heading, Personal and Family Data of John Ragano, according to a filing by defense attorneys Joel Stein and Ken Womble.

The attorneys penned a delicate objection to the mention, but between the lines, they seemed to be saying, "WTF?!"

"The inclusion of the apparent two levels removed guilt by association (of a person Ragano briefly dated years ago) has nothing to do with John Ragano's 'Personal and Family Data' and should not have been included in the PSR," the lawyers wrote, noting that the accusation "is gratuitous, and should be stricken."

"Our argument," said Stein, "is that it has no business being in this report." Asked by Gang Land whether the PSR states or implies that Ragano having dated Junior's sister-in-law was "a bad thing," the lawyer said: "I don't think you can draw any other conclusion. When someone sees the name John Gotti, they get all excited."

The lawyers also stated that probation officials raised the high-end of Ragano's guidelines from 63 to 78 months by wrongly including obstruction of justice charges for which Ragano was acquitted. Those charges included intimidating and harassing Vincent Martino, who managed to tape record Bazoo's threats against him even with his underwear around his ankles and his shirt over his shoulders.

Ragano, 62, who was also acquitted of loansharking conspiracy, was found guilty in October of using extortionate means to threaten Martino from November of 2022 to July of 2023 about a $150,000 loan he had received in 2021. Bazoo has two more years remaining for his 2022 loansharking conviction involving the same $150,000 loan he gave to Martino.

Stein and Womble told Gonzalez that the officials who prepared the PSR ignored not only the facts of the case and the jury's finding on that issue, they ignored a November amendment to the sentencing guidelines which "prohibits the use of acquitted conduct to enhance" the sentencing guidelines of a defendant who is found guilty of other charges in the case.

The officials who wrote the PSR stated that Ragano "continued to harass and tamper with [Martino] while on pretrial release" and "attempted to instill fear into [Martino]" without citing any "specific allegation, let alone evidence, that would support this conclusory language," the lawyers wrote.

"The defense is still unaware of exactly what Ragano is alleged to have done to harass or tamper with Martino to prevent Martino from reporting the offense of conviction to law enforcement," they wrote, arguing that "the jury also appeared to share this question" during its deliberations.

In a note "to the Court," they wrote, the jurors asked "for confirmation that the government must prove that any harassment or tampering of Martino by Ragano must have been committed with the intention to keep Martino from reporting violations of pretrial supervision or loansharking to law enforcement," and then they "acquitted Ragano of both counts."

"The more alarming issue" about the Probation Department's decision to up the high end of Ragano's recommended prison term from 63 months to 78 months for the alleged obstruction of justice, they wrote, is that "the U.S. Sentencing Commission made clear when adopting the amendment that the use of acquitted conduct to enhance a defendant's guideline is prohibited."

U.S. Marshals Service Set To Receive Millions Of Dollars From New Wave Wiseguy

In about two months, the U.S. Marshals Service, the oldest federal law enforcement agency, is expecting a windfall: Anthony Villani, a 60-year-old new wave Luchese mobster, is due to fork over $2.8 million to the agency as part of the sentence for his racketeering conviction.

In addition to the bookmaking activities that formed the basis of his conviction, Villani is the owner of two Playa Bowl franchises in Westchester. These upscale eateries sell bowls of exotic fruits like acai berries and pitaya, a cactus-rooted "superfruit" to health-minded customers.

Four longtime Villani associates from his lucrative old-school gambling business will also be making their own reluctant contributions totaling more than $550,000 to the USMS. Among them is Louis (Tooch) Tucci Jr., a Luchese associate who is a Villani partner in one of the Playa Bowl stores.

The big bucks are being routed to the Marshals because the agency is the "primary disbursing agency" for the Department of Justice's Asset Forfeiture Program. (Ssh, don't tell Elon Musk, he might try and grab it.)

Villani has to pony up the $2.8 million to satisfy his guilty plea last week to racketeering charges that calls for him to forfeit $4 million 30 days before he is sentenced. His plea deal calls for a recommended prison term of 30-to-37 months, but he won't be able appeal a sentence up to 46 months as excessive.

The feds seized $1.2 million from Villani when they searched his home in Elmsford and several other locations in Westchester and The Bronx in December of 2020. FBI agents seized $540,703 in cash, plus $5816 worth of Euros and $49 worth of British Pound Sterling in raids. The feds seized another $634,047 from bank accounts controlled by Villani.

Two years later, Villani, was hit with racketeering charges as the main honcho of Rhino Sports, an online gambling business that serviced between 400 to 1300 gamblers a week and earned him more than $1 million a year. Rhino Sports had a wire room based in Costa Rica, and used local bookies and runners to pay winning gamblers and collect from losers each week.

Since then, Villani has been living under strict house arrest restrictions on a $3 million bond that is secured by several properties.

This has kept him away from meetings like the one he attended with acting Luchese boss Michael (Big Mike) DeSantis and four other family mobsters in an East Harlem park in 2020. That get together was memorialized by an FBI photo and was featured as a surprise end of summer contest by Gang Land in September of 2022, in case you missed it.

In 2023, Villani lawyers tried to replace his home detention with a 24-hour GPS monitor and a 10 PM curfew. This would enable him to more effectively run his Playa Bowl franchises that were open seven days a week from 9AM to 9PM. But prosecutor Jaqueline Rangel "vehemently" objected and convinced Brooklyn Federal Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to deny the request.

"An ankle monitor" could identify whether Villano went to "a prohibited place," she wrote, but it would reveal "nothing about with whom the defendant was meeting or the purpose of any meeting he took. It would not show if he went to a parking lot to pick up money from a bookmaker or because he was shopping," Rangel wrote.

The prosecutor asserted in a court filing that Villani's "income has never principally come from his operation of smoothie stores" but rather from "a vast offshore gambling business that brought in millions in illegal cash" Any claim that the "operation of Playa Bowls is necessary to his livelihood is antithetical to decades of conduct by the defendant," the prosecutor wrote.

Judge Matsumoto agreed with the government. "Given the nature of the charges" and Villani's established contacts with mobsters, the judge wrote, "the Court is not satisfied that the (current circumstances) warrant a modification of Mr. Villani's conditions of release."

Tucci, 61, a Villani partner in a Playa Bowl store in Bronxville, also resolved his charges last week. His required payment to the USMS, $283,000 is the most of any of Villani's underlings. Tucci's guilty plea to illegal gambling from 2004 to 2020 calls for a recommended prison term up to six months in prison.

Luchese family associates Dennis Filizzola, 61, and James (Quick) Coumoutsos, 62, each pleaded guilty to illegal gambling charges. Their sentencing guidelines are the same as Tucci's, zero to six months. Filizzola has to forfeit $116,000; Coumoutsos forfeits $57,000.

Michael (Platinum) Praino, 47, also pleaded guilty to illegal gambling, but his sentencing guidelines, because he has a prior conviction, are 6-to-12 months. Like the other workers, Praino is eligible for a no-jail sentence. In any event, the USMS expects to receive $112,000 from Praino in money orders, certified check and/or bank checks next month, 30 days before he faces the music for his crimes on April 8.

[outfit guy]

Thank you for posting. It's just that there appears to be nothing to write about.

[Dr031718]

Thank you for posting. It's just that there appears to be nothing to write about.

Ya couple big Gambino cases that are out there but same stuff every week

[Tonyd621]

Why does he call Villani "new wave..." what's different about him?

[Tonyd621]

And there is so much talk about money in the Villani case. I feel like it's cash grab for the govt more then actually getting "criminals" off the street. If they want money, picking on guys like Villani is not the way to do it. It goes to show how far behind the 8 ball the govt really is, if seizing assets is the name of the game now

[jmack]

And there is so much talk about money in the Villani case. I feel like it's cash grab for the govt more then actually getting "criminals" off the street. If they want money, picking on guys like Villani is not the way to do it. It goes to show how far behind the 8 ball the govt really is, if seizing assets is the name of the game now

It might be a good strategy, actually. Criminals are far more likely to stop committing crime if they don’t reap the financial rewards. Now that the mob is less violent it makes sense to target them financially.

[NickyEyes1]

Poor guy was just referring some guys and they railroad him. While people get misdemeanors for robbery in state court

[NorthBuffalo]

Why does he call Villani "new wave..." what's different about him?

I had the same question - he's an older guy not a 20 something...is it because of the money he was bringing in?

[OcSleeper]

Capeci calls him that because of his "new wave" juice bar.

August 10, 2023 GL.

For a few years now, Luchese wiseguy Anthony Villani has been the owner-operator of a very popular new wave juice bar business, Gang Land has learned. He sells fruit juices, smoothies, and fruit bowls of coconut, pineapple, and wildly popular acai berries and pitaya, a cactus-rooted, so-called "superfruit" from Central and South America that is now grown all over the globe.

Jan 9, 2025 GL.

As Gang Land reported in August of 2023, Villani is a new wave wiseguy. In his day job, he sells fruit juices, smoothies, and bowls of coconut, pineapple, and wildly popular acai berries and pitaya, a cactus-rooted, so-called "superfruit" from Central and South America in Playa Bowl franchises he owns in Bronxville and Pleasantville

[aray22]

Capeci calls him that because of his "new wave" juice bar.

August 10, 2023 GL.

For a few years now, Luchese wiseguy Anthony Villani has been the owner-operator of a very popular new wave juice bar business, Gang Land has learned. He sells fruit juices, smoothies, and fruit bowls of coconut, pineapple, and wildly popular acai berries and pitaya, a cactus-rooted, so-called "superfruit" from Central and South America that is now grown all over the globe.

Jan 9, 2025 GL.

As Gang Land reported in August of 2023, Villani is a new wave wiseguy. In his day job, he sells fruit juices, smoothies, and bowls of coconut, pineapple, and wildly popular acai berries and pitaya, a cactus-rooted, so-called "superfruit" from Central and South America in Playa Bowl franchises he owns in Bronxville and Pleasantville

The funny thing is that the juice bars aren't even call new wave, they're called playa bowl.

[Tonyd621]

And there is so much talk about money in the Villani case. I feel like it's cash grab for the govt more then actually getting "criminals" off the street. If they want money, picking on guys like Villani is not the way to do it. It goes to show how far behind the 8 ball the govt really is, if seizing assets is the name of the game now

It might be a good strategy, actually. Criminals are far more likely to stop committing crime if they don’t reap the financial rewards. Now that the mob is less violent it makes sense to target them financially.

I also think if Villani was making that much scharole at his level in food chain-you got to think the powers to be are sitting just fine. The yt rats or whoever else who says the mob is dead. Sure, certain aspects. But the money making opportunities are still lucrative. Chierchio raked in a ton, Laforte the same. The money making aspect of the mob is alive and well imo. I know I'll get pushback but that's just my thought

[Tonyd621]

Those playa bowlz franchise start up costs is probably close to half a million in NYC. So, Villani has been making $ for a while. All from internet gambling it looks like.

[jmack]

And there is so much talk about money in the Villani case. I feel like it's cash grab for the govt more then actually getting "criminals" off the street. If they want money, picking on guys like Villani is not the way to do it. It goes to show how far behind the 8 ball the govt really is, if seizing assets is the name of the game now

It might be a good strategy, actually. Criminals are far more likely to stop committing crime if they don’t reap the financial rewards. Now that the mob is less violent it makes sense to target them financially.

I also think if Villani was making that much scharole at his level in food chain-you got to think the powers to be are sitting just fine. The yt rats or whoever else who says the mob is dead. Sure, certain aspects. But the money making opportunities are still lucrative. Chierchio raked in a ton, Laforte the same. The money making aspect of the mob is alive and well imo. I know I'll get pushback but that's just my thought

The mob is far from dead (in NY), but the pie has shrunk. I also think these outliers who are well of are the exception, not the rule. It wouldn’t shock me if guys at the bottom of the totem pole are struggling to make 150k.

[johnny_scootch]

The funny thing is that the juice bars aren't even call new wave, they're called playa bowl.

He means that the Playa Bowl stores are part of a 'new wave' of juice bars. Baya Bar, Playa Bowl, SoBol, Oakberry....all part of the new wave.

I also think these outliers who are well of are the exception, not the rule. It wouldn’t shock me if guys at the bottom of the totem pole are struggling to make 150k.

There have always been brokesters and there have always been multi-millionaires and just like normal society the majority are somewhere in between.

[Laughmatics]

Johnny Scootch, I couldn't have said it better myself. There have always been brokesters and earners. Matter of fact, just like any other business, the Mafia wouldn't work if everyone was rich.