Rosario Gangi

Last updated
Rosario Gangi
Born (1939-11-10) November 10, 1939 (age 83)

Rosario "Ross" Gangi (born November 10, 1939) is a New York City mobster and former captain in the Genovese crime family who became involved in labor Racketeering and white collar crime.

Contents

Biography

His father, uncles and cousins were associated with the Bonanno and Genovese crime families. His uncle Angelo Prezzanzano was a capo in the Bonanno crime family and his cousin Frank Gangi Jr. and uncle Frank Gangi Sr. were both drug dealers. In August 1960, Rosario's paternal uncle Frank Sr. was murdered in a mob-related incident that involved Sicilian hit men being brought down from Montreal, Canada to kill Frank Tuminaro and Gangi Sr. It was suspected the murders were carried out by Genovese mobster Charles Gagliodotto, who in August 1969 was found strangled to death, supposedly by members of Tuminaro's family.

Fish tycoon

As a Genovese family associate, Gangi began working at the Fulton Fish Market in Lower Manhattan. Genovese mobster Carmine Romano controlled the $1 billion per year seafood industry at the market. On August 13, 1981, Gangi was indicted on federal racketeering charges involving the Fish Market and Local 359 of the United Seafood Workers Union, which represented the market's unionized fish handlers. In the early 1990s, Gangi became a caporegime in the Genovese family and ran the fish rackets with Brooklyn captain Alphonse "Allie Shades" Malangone. During the mid-1990s, Gangi's son Thomas Gangi came under fire as an officer of Preferred Quality Seafood, a seafood wholesaler. The company was later evicted from the Fish Market due to its noncompliance with the probe on mob control of the market. [1]

During the mid-1990s, Gangi discovered a large-scale surveillance campaign by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and New York Police Department (NYPD) against the Genovese family. Since boss Vincent Gigante had gone to prison the last time, the family had assumed a lower-key public image and become more security-conscious to prevent its high-level members from serving long prison terms.

Criminal schemes

On November 25, 1997, Gangi, his top soldier Ernest Montevecchi, and Bonanno crime family captain Frank Lino were indicted in a massive stock fraud and manipulation indictment. The scheme was a classic "pump and dump" stock scam. The mobsters acquired a large position in the stock of HealthTech International Inc., a Mesa, Arizona, health and fitness firm that was traded on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. Tens of thousands of shares were given to the mobsters by top HealthTech officials Gordon Hall and Joe Kirkham. The crime families then bribed and threatened brokers at the Wall Street firm of Meyers Pollock Robins Inc., to sell the stock to unsuspecting investors. Once the stock price reached an inflated level, the mobsters sold their shares and made huge profits, leaving individual investors with worthless stock. The indictment also alleged that the mobsters conspired to defraud the Staten Island Savings Bank in Staten Island, New York, and Sun Records, a famous recording label in Memphis, Tennessee. [2] [3]

On February 17, 1998, Gangi, Genovese associate John Albert, and Gambino crime family soldier Vincent DiModica were indicted for extorting contractors and scheming to defraud the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark International Airport. Gangi received kickbacks, disguised as consulting fees, from companies constructing the $350 million monorail network at the airport. On July 27, 1998, Gangi, Albert and DiModica, were convicted on the Newark Airport charges. On January 21, 1999, Gangi pleaded guilty to his involvement in the HealthTech case and was sentenced to a 97-month prison term.

On December 5, 2001, Gangi and Genovese captains Pasquale Parrello and Joseph Dente, Jr. were charged with extortion, robbery conspiracy, gun trafficking, loan sharking, labor racketeering and embezzlement, credit card fraud, trafficking in untaxed liquor and cigarettes, gambling and counterfeiting. [4] [5] The indictment was the result of the undercover work of an NYPD officer who operated under the moniker "Big Frankie". This undercover officer, who was actually being considered for family membership, would often eat lunch with Parrello. On April 30, 2002, Gangi pleaded guilty to racketeering in the 2001 charges and was sentenced to 78 months in prison. [6]

Gangi was imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution - Schuylkill in Minersville, Pennsylvania. He was released on August 8, 2008. [7]

See also

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vincent Gigante</span> American boxer and mobster (1928–2005)

Vincent Louis Gigante, also known as "The Chin", was an American mobster who was boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City from 1981 to 2005. Gigante started out as a professional boxer who fought in 25 matches between 1944 and 1947. He then started working as a Mafia enforcer for what was then the Luciano crime family, forerunner of the Genovese family. Gigante was one of five brothers; three of them, Mario, Pasquale, and Ralph, followed him into the Mafia. Only one brother, Louis, stayed out of the crime family, instead becoming a Catholic priest. Gigante was the shooter in the failed assassination of longtime Luciano boss Frank Costello in 1957. In 1959, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for drug trafficking, and after sharing a prison cell with Costello's rival, Vito Genovese, Gigante became a caporegime overseeing his own crew of Genovese soldiers and associates who operated out of Greenwich Village.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gambino crime family</span> New York-based organized crime group

The Gambino crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. The group, which went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957, is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Massino</span> American mobster (1940–2023)

Joseph Charles Massino was an American mobster. He was a member of the Mafia and boss of the Bonanno crime family from 1991 until 2004, when he became the first boss of one of the Five Families in New York City to turn state's evidence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genovese crime family</span> Italian-American organized crime group

The Genovese crime family, also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American Mafia. They have generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia, Patriarca, and Buffalo crime families.

The Mafia Commission Trial was a criminal trial before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in New York City, United States, that lasted from February 25, 1985, until November 19, 1986. Using evidence obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 11 organized crime figures, including the heads of New York City's "Five Families", were indicted by United States Attorney Rudolph Giuliani under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) on charges including extortion, labor racketeering, and murder. Eight of them were convicted under RICO, and most were sentenced to 100 years in prison on January 13, 1987, the maximum possible sentence under that law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liborio Bellomo</span> American mobster

Liborio Salvatore Bellomo is an American mobster and boss of the Genovese crime family of New York City. Bellomo was a member of the 116th Street Crew of Saverio "Sammy Black" Santora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Crea</span> American mobster

Steven L. "Stevie" Crea is an American mobster and former underboss of the Lucchese crime family. In August 2020, Crea was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and racketeering.

The Commission is the governing body of the American Mafia, formed in 1931 by Charles "Lucky" Luciano following the Castellammarese War. The Commission replaced the title of capo di tutti i capi, held by Salvatore Maranzano before his murder, with a ruling committee that consists of the bosses of the Five Families of New York City, as well as the boss of the Chicago Outfit and, at various times, the leaders of smaller families, such as Buffalo, Philadelphia, Detroit, and others. The purpose of the Commission was to oversee all Mafia activities in the United States and serve to mediate conflicts among families.

Alan Longo also known as Baldie is an American mobster and a former caporegime in the Genovese crime family.

Carmine Romano was a New York mobster and captain in the Genovese Crime Family who controlled the Fulton Fish Market distribution center in Downtown Manhattan.

Thomas Francis Gambino is an Italian-American New York City mobster and a longtime caporegime of the Gambino crime family who successfully controlled lucrative trucking rackets in the New York City Garment District. He is the son of Carlo Gambino and nephew of Paul Castellano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Lino</span> American mobster

Frank "Curly" Lino was an American former caporegime in the Bonanno crime family who later became an informant.

Frank Coppa Sr. is a Sicilian-American gangster in the Bonanno crime family who was a close friend of Joseph Massino and Frank Lino and made large sums of money in stock fraud schemes. In 2002, Coppa became the first Bonanno made man to turn state's evidence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alphonse Malangone</span> American mobster

Alphonse Malangone, legal name "Alfonso" and known as "Allie Shades," is a New York City-based mobster and former caporegime in the Genovese crime family. Malangone controlled the Genovese interests in the Fulton Fish Market, as well as being involved in pump and dump stock scams on Wall Street, and controlling Brooklyn's garbage hauling industry. He was a central figure in the book "Takedown: The Fall of the Last Mafia Empire" (ISBN 0-425-19299-7) an autobiography by NYPD officer Rick Cowan who went undercover for several years in the commercial garbage industry, posing as a family member of Brooklyn garbage company and eventually gaining access to the garbage cartel's organization, the Kings County Trade Waste Association. Cowen describes Malangone as the cagiest and most relatable of mobsters he dealt with.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucchese crime family</span> One of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, US

The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City in the United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Rastelli</span> American mobster

Philip "Rusty" Rastelli was an American mobster and former boss of the Bonanno crime family; he spent all but three years of his reign in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Salerno</span> American mobster (1911–1992)

Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno was an American mobster who served as underboss and front boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City from 1981 until his conviction in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonanno crime family</span> Italian-American organized crime group

The Bonanno crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia.

Daniel Marino is an Italian American mobster and member of the Gambino crime family. He was identified as a member of the family's leadership panel, alongside John Gambino and Bartolomeo Vernace, in 2009.

References

  1. ↑ "5 Fish Dealers Face Eviction From Market" By SELWYN RAAB New York Times July 22, 1995
  2. ↑ "2 Tied to Mob Admit Roles in Stock Scheme" By BENJAMIN WEISER New York Times January 22, 1999
  3. ↑ "BROKERS AND MOB LINKED IN SWINDLE" By BENJAMIN WEISER New York Times November 26, 1997
  4. ↑ Indictments Name 73 Linked to the Genovese Crime Family By Robert F. Worth. December 6, 2001. New York Times.
  5. ↑ "Using an Informer, U.S. Agents Charge 45 in Mafia Crimes" By ALAN FEUER New York Times April 26, 2001
  6. ↑ "So Many Indictments" American Mafia.com
  7. ↑ "Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator". Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2010-06-16.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.