Gangland April 10th 2025

[Dr031718]

Mob Associate Whose 10-Year Sentence Commuted By Trump Jailed For Assault Of Three-Year-Old Boy

Jonathan Braun, a violent drug dealing Gambino associate whose 10 year prison sentence was commuted by Donald Trump on the last day of his first term as POTUS, was arrested and jailed last week following a series of threats and assaults against his wife, her 75-year-old father, a nurse, a nanny, and a three-year-old boy, Gang Land has learned.

The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office moved quickly to jail Braun on federal charges linked to his commuted sentence a few days after his release on $25,000 cash bail on state assault charges against a father and his three-year-old son. "It was alarming that the victim was a three-year-old child," said a knowledgeable source. "Braun's behavior was becoming more violent," the source said.

Since Friday, Braun, who made millions of dollars in the lucrative Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) industry with Gambino mobster Robert Giardina between 2015 and 2020 — much of it illegally, according to the Federal Trade Commission — has been housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn as a danger to the community.

Brooklyn Federal Judge Kiyo Matsumoto ordered him detained for seven violations of his post-prison supervised release (VOSR) from the sentence that President Trump commuted at 12:51 AM on January 20, 2021. Braun's family used their ties to Charles Kushner, the father of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to win Braun's release.

In addition to the VOSR charges, for which Braun faces up to five years, he also faces seven years in prison for the most serious state charges. Each penalty is longer than the time he spent behind bars for drug trafficking and money laundering for smuggling 100,000 kilos of marijuana into the U.S. from Canada from 2007 to 2010. He was detained for 18 months after his arrest in 2010, and spent a year in prison before Trump commuted his sentence in 2021.

Braun, 41, faces a full-blown hearing today on the seven VOSR allegations that began last May with a hard-to-fathom petty larceny charge shortly after he was found guilty in a civil trial of swindling MCA loan customers out of $3.5 million and fined $16.9 million.

After appealing the verdict, as well as trial judge Jed Rakoff's decision to more than double the $7.5 million fine the jury imposed because Braun "gleefully" took part in years of "illegal conduct" with "a complete disregard for how his actions would affect his customers, most of whom were small businesses," Braun withdrew his appeal, with prejudice.

And since then, Braun flaunted his freedom with a devil-may-care attitude, even though he was given five years of supervised release, which doesn't end until January of 2016.

Last year, from May 31 until July 10, Braun evaded $160 in EZ-Pass tolls while driving his Lamborghini or his Ferrari convertible over the Atlantic Beach Bridge — without license plates — 40 times between his "home" in Lawrence L.I. and his "summer place" in Atlantic Beach, according to specifics in several complaints filed in Nassau District Court.

The market value of the Lawrence home, a two-story 18-room house built in 2020, the year the FTC filed its suit against Braun, Giardina and two of their companies, has a market value of $5,989,000, according to Property Shark, an online real estate database. The Atlantic Beach home, a petite eight-room bungalow by comparison, has a value of $1,134,000.

In August of last year, Braun's wife told police he had thrown her to the floor and punched her in the head several times, and had assaulted her father as well.

Judge Matsumoto told Braun she had heard that he was engaged in allegedly violent activity in the federal prison in Otisville before his sentence was commuted four years ago, and was not happy to now be hearing similar allegations about him again.

"I did receive reports about violent conduct from others, including your wife," the judge said. "I also heard that you threw someone off a concrete balcony."

While most of the VOSR allegations were what she referred to as "Grade C violations" that could mean at most, nine months in prison, Matsumoto said that assaulting a three-year-old child was a "Grade A violation" that could mean another two and a half more years behind bars.

"I'm concerned," she told Braun, and his attorney, Kathryn Wozencroft, of the Federal Defenders of New York, who was assigned to represent him. "There's a child involved, a three-year-old that was pushed to the ground."

That occurred during a Sabbath observance on March 29 at Brauns's home in Lawrence when "Braun became angry," according to a complaint that was filed in Nassau County Supreme Court. Braun punched a man "in the face" and then shoved the man and his son "to the ground," leaving a "red mark on (the boy's) back and causing substantial pain to his back."

At a Sabbath observance a week earlier near his Lawrence home, Braun "became angry and started yelling" at a man for praying too loud, and told him: "Do you know who I am or what I can do to you," according to a complaint. When the man ignored him, Braun grabbed "the victim's arms tightly and stated, 'I'm going to fuck you up,'" the complaint said.

Braun, who was arrested by deputy U.S. Marshals at a hotel early Friday, was agitated and combative during his arraignment. He gave the finger to Newsday reporter Janon Fisher, who covered Braun's March 29 arrest in Mineola Supreme Court and had pressed him for comment about the assault of the three-year-old boy — along with photographer Howard Schnapp.

Braun also complained about being represented by a lawyer who was appointed 20 minutes earlier and argued that he could do a better job defending himself.

"I could have gone to law school," he told the Judge. "I chose not to," he added, without noting that he really couldn't after he dropped out of the College of Staten Island to open up a business selling cell phones and accessories after earning 56 credits.

Matsumoto wondered aloud whether Braun was entitled to be represented by a court appointed attorney. She ordered Braun to complete and submit a financial report to the Court, and allowed Wozencroft to continue as his attorney in the meantime.

"My concern is that there are repeated instances over a broad range of victims in recent months," Matsumoto stated in agreeing with prosecutor Rachel Bennek to detain Braun pending today's hearing. "I do have to consider the protection of the public."

The judge noted that Braun also has the means to flee the jurisdiction, and had done so once before, absconding to Israel through Canada before returning to the U.S. following his indictment in 2010.

In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors Bennek and Tanya Hajjar, Chief of the Organized Crime and Gangs Unit, informed Matsumoto that they will use testimony and documents to prove today that Braun assaulted the three-year-old boy and his father, forcibly touched (groped) a nanny, menaced the man who was praying too loud to suit Braun on March 22, and the petty larceny charges involving the theft of $160 in Atlantic Beach Bridge tolls.

They asked Matsumoto to extend the hearing one day to permit a nurse who has a "work commitment" today to testify Friday that Braun menaced her when he was a patient at Mount Sinai Hospital in Oceanside. He allegedly approached her swinging a pole at her and frightened her during an argument.

Wozencroft did not object to putting that VOSR allegation off until tomorrow. She also assured Matsumoto that Braun will "complete a financial affidavit" to support her appointment as his lawyer and provide it to the Court prior to the start of the hearing.

Gang Land suspects that Wozencroft will argue that the $20 million that Braun currently owes the FTC makes him a worthy candidate for a court appointed attorney. That assumes that Braun told her all about it.

In 2022, Braun's business partner in two MCA companies, Gambino soldier Giardina — his grandfather Louis Giardina had been a bagman for Mafia boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano — threw in the towel. Giardina owned up to using "unlawful acts and practices" to swindle thousands of customers and paid $2.7 million to settle the FTC lawsuit against him.

Once Again, Judge Sides With FiFi

He's a Gambino soldier with convictions dating back to 1993 for dealing cocaine and possessing a loaded gun. He's been free on bail for 17 months. The feds say that Angelo (FiFi) Gradilone, 58, should continue to wear a GPS ankle monitor. That will enable them to track him and deter him from committing more crimes while he awaits trial for racketeering conspiracy.

Prosecutors wrote that Gradilone had "kicked up," that is, "paid financial tribute" to family capo, Joseph (Joe Brooklyn) Lanni, the main gangster in the 10-defendant case. They also claim the Court already made life easier for FiFi when the judge reversed a permanent order of detention and released the wiseguy from "custody specifically because the defendant consented to home detention."

A year later, on October 30, 2024, the prosecutors wrote, the Court granted Gradilone's "application to be released from home detention, permitting him to travel within New York City while subject to electronic monitoring," over the government's objection.

"There is no basis for the Court to once again loosen the defendant's conditions of release," prosecutors Anna Karamigios, Andrew Roddin and Elias Laris argued in a court filing with Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block.

"Organized crime defendants like Gradilone," they wrote, "pose a particular threat to the community due to the continuing nature of these criminal organizations." That's because the mobsters are "career criminals" who "pose a distinct threat to commit additional crimes if released on bail, let alone on relaxed conditions," the prosecutors wrote.

FiFi's association with the Gambino family "for over 15 years" and his "participation in the crimes alleged in the indictment, alone," the prosecutors argued, "warrant significant terms of release, including (at minimum) location monitoring as currently imposed by the Court."

On Gradilone's behalf, his court-appointed lawyer, Michael Schneider, argued that his client's time out on bail was "without incident." He added that his client was not charged with extortion or "any violent or obstructive acts," and that the government's "only substantive allegation" against FiFi was "that he received pay and benefits for work he did not perform."

In addition, his lawyer complained, not only did Gradilone, who is indigent, have to "pay for the costs of monitoring," it was also "burdensome" for him "to arrange for the removal and reattachment of the monitor when necessary for medical appointments and tests" for FiFi to schedule "medical procedures, including surgeries, to address knee and leg problems," Schneider wrote.

That argument apparently won the day. On Friday, Judge Block again decided to "loosen the defendant's conditions of release."

"After hearing from all the parties," Block stated in a note on the court docket sheet, he "granted the application" and eliminated Gradilone's "standalone electronic monitoring" based on his "compliance with his conditions of release" while he's been free on bond as well as "the nature of the charges against him." A big win for Fifi.

Editor's Note: Gang Land will be on spring break next week. We'll be back with more real stuff about organized crime in two weeks, on April 24.

33 Years Later, Newswoman Thanks Judge Glasser; He Wonders If Gang Land Was A Bad Guy

It was a festive occasion that featured Chief Judge Margo Brodie leading a hundred or so judges, prosecutors and other courthouse regulars in singing Happy Birthday to senior Judges I. Leo Glasser and Allyne Ross. Veteran news reporter Patricia Hurtado decided the time was ripe to thank Glasser for his favor during the Mob Trial Of The Century, the 1992 trial of Mafia boss John Gotti.

"Judge," she told the venerable 101-year-young jurist, "I want you to know that the press is eternally grateful for what you did during the Gotti trial. You let a pool reporter cover the voir dire as a representative of the public. We always use this as a precedent, not only in mob cases, but trials involving terrorism, and celebrities like Martha Stewart."

"I had no idea I caused all that trouble," Glasser cracked.
"No, it was really great, because we always use that as an example when the government or defense tries to exclude us," she said.

Hurtado toiled for Newsday during the murder trial of Gotti and his consigliere Frank (Frankie Loc) Locascio. She works for Bloomberg News these days. She recounted the brief discussion she had with the still active judge about his decision to let a pool reporter cover the anonymous jury selection in the judge's robing room, where prospective jurors were interviewed one at a time.

"I don't recall you being in the robing room," said Glasser. "Who was part of the group?"
"Me, Arnie Lubasch, Gene Mustain, Phil Messing, Pete Bowles, Jerry Capeci," she replied, naming newspaper reporters who covered the trial for The Times, The Post, Newsday and The Daily News.
"What happened? Capeci and the guys wouldn't let you in the robing room?" Glasser said.

Judge Allyne Ross"No, he was holding down the fort," Hurtado said.
"Ah, Jerry Capeci, Jerry Capeci," Glasser said with a smile on his face and a chuckle in his voice that seemed to say, "That's the Jerry Capeci I remember, the causing trouble Jerry Capeci," Hurtado laughed.

Like Patty Hurtado, Gang Land is eternally grateful that Glasser let a pool reporter cover the voir dire, not only for the precedent that it set. It also enabled Gene Mustain, my Daily News colleague and co-author of two books about Gotti, to have a 40-minute chat with the Dapper Don when the lawyers and prosecutors left Gotti in the robing room when Gene was the pool reporter.

Brooklyn Federal Court honchos managed to throw a surprise party on Tuesday for Glasser, who was 101 on Sunday, and for Ross, who was 78 on Monday. They tried to keep the suspense. They told Judge Ross to go to the ceremonial courtroom for Judge Glasser's birthday and told Glasser to go there for Ross's celebration. The result? Many happy returns in Brooklyn Federal Court.

[AntComello]

Send that animal Braun back to prison where he belongs

[Cheech]

Jerry must think he has to go to print like at the daily news...

[SonnyBlackstein]

Jerry must think he has to go to print like at the daily news...

Spring break time. Have to get out of the office early.

[Cheech]

by the time Jerry gets to it, the case will be closed.

[SonnyBlackstein]

by the time Jerry gets to it, the case will be closed.

By the time Jerry gets to it, they'll be off parole.


Try the veal.