John Gotti’s grandson has begun serving time in a federal prison after a Brooklyn judge refused to let his long-postponed COVID-19 fraud sentence wait any longer when a planned kidney donation to his ailing mother did not happen by the court’s deadline.
Carmine Agnello, 40, surrendered to authorities on Aug. 10 and started his 15-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in New Jersey, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Agnello, the grandson of the late Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, had originally been directed to report to prison on June 20. He was granted a two-month delay so he could undergo a kidney transplant procedure for his mother, Victoria Gotti, that had been scheduled for Aug. 3.
But the surgery date passed without the transplant taking place, and Agnello remained able to donate. He later informed Brooklyn federal court that his mother was suffering from a serious infection and asked the judge for another extension.
“It is nonetheless hoped that she will be cleared for surgery in the coming days and Mr. Agnello stands ready to provide the donation and simply awaits word of greenlight for surgery,” Agnello’s attorney Robert Beltrani wrote in an Aug. 4 letter to Judge Nusrat Choudhury.
Choudhury set a firm condition during an Aug. 6 court appearance: if the transplant went forward on or before Aug. 10, Agnello would be allowed to remain free for one more month, until Sept. 18.
If the surgery did not take place by then, the former reality TV personality had to report to prison on Aug. 10, according to the docket in the federal case.
Agnello made one more bid to push back his surrender date to Sept. 18, telling the court his mother was still fighting a severe infection and that the transplant could not be scheduled in time.
“This is an unusual and deeply personal circumstance,” Beltrani wrote in a letter filed on the day Agnello turned himself in.
“Carmine is not asking the Court to interfere with his sentence or provide him with special treatment.”
But the motion was denied — the judge ruled that without any surgery on the books, Agnello couldn’t avoid his fate any longer.
“Because there is no concrete evidence that an organ transplant will be scheduled to take place at any time between today and September 18, 2026, the request for another deferral of Mr. Agnello’s self-surrender is unjustified,” the judge said, per the docket.
Prosecutors with the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office have repeatedly argued that the situation did not warrant any leniency from the court and said that Agnello could give up the kidney while behind bars.
Agnello was sentenced on April 20 after pleading guilty to skimming Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the Small Business Administration that were meant to help companies recover from the pandemic shutdown.
He was also ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution on top of his prison sentence.
