Staten Island Mobsters Sentenced For Loansharking
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Federal Judge Carol Amon Monday sentenced four out of five Staten Island mobsters convicted of loansharking, a violent money making staple of the Bonanno crime family.
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The longest sentence - 19 months - went to 71-year-old Anthony Graziano. He's described as the consigliere of the Bonanno crime family.
His other claim to fame is the fact that his daughter Renee has built her career on the family's reputation. She appears on the reality TV show "Mob Wives."
Also sentenced today were Vito Balsamo, 56; Anthony Calabrese, 44; and James LaForte Jr., 35.
Attorneys had pleaded for lenient sentences, telling the judge their clients were either too sick to go to prison or had redeeming qualities.
As for Anthony Badalamenti, the acting boss of the Bonannos, his sentence was postponed.
He'll get a hearing on a claim from his attorney, Ron Fischetti, that he has already done the time for this particular crime of loansharking.
"Under our law, and I'm not conceiting, but you have to be sentenced for what you've done, not on the basis of what the government says who you are," he said.
