Genovese crime family member Carmelo Polito sentenced to 30 months in prison for running illegal Lynbrook gambling operation, attempted extortion

A federal judge in Brooklyn sentenced a longtime member of the Genovese crime family who pleaded guilty earlier this year to operating an illegal gambling operation in Lynbrook to 30 months in prison on Friday.

U.S. District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano told Carmelo Polito, of Whitestone, that gambling operations run by organized crime families were not victimless crimes, but part of a larger “terrible scourge” that victimized the community, particularly Italian Americans.

“When does it stop?” the judge asked Polito, 64, who declined to address the court before he was sentenced.

Polito’s attorney, Gerald McMahon of New York, said the sentence was appropriate.

“I love Judge Vitaliano,” McMahon said after Friday’s sentencing. “He’s a very fair guy. So I was very pleased it was the low end of the [federal sentencing] guidelines.”

Prosecutors described Polito as a former acting captain and a soldier within the Genovese crime family who has been involved in organized crime for decades. He pleaded guilty in April to racketeering involving the operation of an illegal gambling business and an attempted extortion.

Federal prosecutors with the Eastern District of New York said the Genovese and Bonanno crime families have operated a lucrative illegal gambling parlor concealed in a Lynbrook coffee shop called the Gran Caffe since at least 2012. Polito and co-defendant Joseph Macario, also known as “Joe Fish.” and Anthony “Little Anthony” Pipitone, negotiated a deal that ensured both crime families would benefit from the Lynbrook gambling operation, federal prosecutors said.

The Genovese crime family also operated illegal gambling parlors out of the Centro Calcio Italiano Club in West Babylon and a Brooklyn business called Sal’s Shoe Repair, prosecutors said. Those gambling operations were operated by Polito, Macario, Joseph “Joe Box” Rutigliano and Salvatore “Sal the Shoemaker” Rubino, the prosecutors said.

Rutigliano and Rubino collected the process of the gambling operations and distributed them to higher ranking members, including Polito and Macario, officials said. Polito was also seen distributing proceeds to his superiors on numerous occasions, according to prosecutors.

Polito and another co-defendant, Mark Feuer of Oceanside, also operated an illegal sports gambling scheme through a website called “PGWLines, according to prosecutors.. Polito attempted to extort an individual who lost several thousand dollars in through the website, using death threats and other threats of violence, federal prosecutors said.

Polito instructed another individual during a September 2019 phone call to tell the debtor that he would break the man’s face if he did not pay his debt, according to documents. When the debtor didn’t pay, Polito told the same individual to tell the debtor that he was going to “put him under a f—— bridge,” officials said.

Polito is the first defendant sentenced in this case and a related case against four members and associates of the Bonanno organized crime family. Macario, officials said.

Rutigliano, Rubino and Feuer are awaiting sentencing.

Vitaliano ordered Polito to surrender to a federal facility chosen by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons no later than Feb. 24.

Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, said Nassau District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly’s office was involved in the investigation, along with the FBI, Nassau police and the NYPD.

“Today’s sentence makes clear to the defendant that the outcome for participating in illegal gambling and making extortionate threats is the loss of something very valuable — your freedom,” Peace said. “Thanks to the outstanding work of prosecutors in my Office and law enforcement, the alliance of the Genovese and Bonanno organized crime families’ racket was a bust.”