Central Islip, New York — Reality TV star John Gotti’s grandson, the grandson of late mob boss John Gotti, was sentenced Monday to 15 months in prison for taking $1.1 million in loans from a federal program aimed at helping small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carmine Agnello, whose gelatinous hair was a mainstay in the mid-2000s&Series E “Growing Up Gotti” must repay the money and perform 100 hours of community service, Judge Nusrat Chaudhry said in federal court on Long Island.
Anello’s sentencing was postponed last month after he said he planned to donate a kidney to his mother, Victoria Gotti, the daughter of the late Gambino crime family boss. Aniello sought to escape from prison as a reward for the donation, which did not happen.
Agnello, 40, should also receive mental health treatment for issues including gambling addiction, Choudhury said. Chaudhry said he will begin his sentence on July 20 and will remain under court supervision for two years after leaving prison.
The prosecution had requested that he be sentenced to imprisonment for a period ranging between 33 and 41 months.
“I carry a great deal of guilt and shame for my actions,” Agnello told the judge, calling the scheme “wrong, selfish and criminal.”
Agnello pleaded guilty in September 2024 to one count of wire fraud after federal prosecutors said he fraudulently applied for and received at least three loans under the Small Business Administration’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) Economic Disaster Loan Program between April 2020 and November 2021.
Agnello obtained the loans on behalf of his company, Crown Auto Parts & Recycling LLC, but used the money for other purposes, including a $420,000 investment in a cryptocurrency business, prosecutors said. The company ceased operations before Agnello applied for and received the bulk of the loan money, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Angelo lied on his loan applications, saying he had no criminal record and provided false information about the number of people his company employed and the intended use of the funds.
“At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the defendant shamefully lined his pockets with government and taxpayer dollars,” US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.
After starring with his mother and two brothers in the movie “Growing Up Gotti” as a teenager, Agnello dropped out of college, co-owns several junkyards with his brothers and runs an online auto parts store. Before the loan case, he was convicted twice of felonies: disorderly conduct in 2009 for possession of a prohibited dangerous knife and a misdemeanor in 2018 for running an unregistered rescue operation.
Seeking probation rather than prison, Anello’s attorney wrote in a sentencing memorandum last month that Gotti’s grandson “resisted being defined by modeling and strove to make his own mark,” including through his interests in bodybuilding, music and cars.
“Despite growing up in one of the most scrutinized families in America, Carmine has always demonstrated the importance of creativity, self-reinvention, and personal growth,” attorney Stephen Metcalf wrote. “His journey is far more upscale than the one that can be found with a quick Google search, where the headlines naturally suggest something scandalous.”