Rosario Gangi

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Rosario Gangi

FBI mugshot of Rosario Gangi
Born November 10, 1939

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

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[edit] 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.

During the mid-1990s, Gangi discovered a large-scale surveillance campaign by the FBI and NYPD against the Genovese family. Since boss John Gotti 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.

[edit] 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.

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 [1].

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 [2]. The indictment was the result of the undercover work of an New York Police Department (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. Gangi pleaded guilty once again.

As of October 2007, Gangi is imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) - Schuylkill in Minersville, Pennsylvania. His projected release date is August 8, 2008. After his release, Gangi is likely to have a major say in the Genovese crime family's affairs, representing the interests of the family's Brooklyn wing.

[edit] Further reading

  • Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
  • Jacobs, James B., Coleen Friel and Robert Radick. Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime. New York: NYU Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8147-4247-5
  • Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8

[edit] External links