Gotti Grandson Gets 15 Months for $1.1M COVID Loan Fraud

Carmine G. Agnello Jr. was sentenced on April 20, 2026, to 15 months in federal prison in Central Islip, New York, after admitting he fraudulently obtained about $1.1 million in Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Nusrat J. Choudhury ordered Agnello, 39, of Smithtown, New York, to pay $1,268,302 in restitution, serve two years of supervised release and complete 100 hours of community service. Federal guidelines recommended a range of roughly 31 to 44 months; the wire fraud charge carries a statutory maximum of 30 years.

Prosecutors say Agnello ran Crown Auto Parts and Recycling LLC in Jamaica, Queens. Between April 2020 and November 2021 he submitted at least three EIDL applications that misstated the number of employees, misrepresented how the funds would be used and falsely claimed he had no criminal record despite a 2018 New York misdemeanor conviction. The SBA and lenders wired the money to accounts he controlled, and prosecutors allege he diverted substantial sums for personal use, including about $420,000 invested in a cryptocurrency business not named in court records.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations. U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocilla Jr. described the conduct as “shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayers’ dollars” meant to support businesses and workers during the pandemic, and added that his office will continue to pursue relief-fraud cases. Ketty Larco-Ward, inspector in charge for the Postal Inspection Service, noted the case as an example of agencies working together to pursue pandemic-related theft.

At sentencing, defense counsel cited personal factors, including that Agnello had donated a kidney to his mother, Victoria Gotti. A pre-sentencing filing described Agnello’s cryptocurrency purchases as driven by an addiction to trading, a condition he has sought treatment for.

Agnello pleaded guilty on Sept. 26, 2024, to one count of wire fraud. After the hearing he told reporters, “It’s alright, it could be worse.”

Agnello appeared on the mid-2000s reality series “Growing Up Gotti.” Prosecutors described the present case as involving pandemic relief fraud and not connected to organized crime prosecutions tied to his grandfather, John J. Gotti, who died in prison in 2002.