Mob-backed sports gambling and loansharking operation busted in Staten Island

State investigators busted a mob-backed sports gambling operation in Staten Island that doubled as a lucrative loansharking scheme, officials said Wednesday.

Seventeen suspects with alleged ties to the Gambino crime family were arrested as part of an 84-count indictment detailing an illegal gambling enterprise that handled more than $22.7 million in illegal sports bets, along with an illegal loansharking business that brought in weekly loan payments on about $500,000 in exorbitant-rate loans.

Four suspects were also charged in a separate indictment for an illegal mortgage fraud scheme to buy a $600,000 home in New Jersey.

“Illegal gambling and loan sharking schemes are some of the oldest rackets in the mob’s playbook,” state Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.

“While organized crime may still be active in New York, today we are putting several Gambino family members out of business,” she added. “These criminal enterprises took tens of millions of dollars from New Yorkers and trapped many in dangerous amounts of debt.”

Among those arrested was Frederick Falcone, Sr., a former member of the NYPD, James said.

According to the indictment, he and Edward LaForte were loan sharks who maintained detailed ledgers with the names of victims and their respective usurious loan amounts.

Meanwhile, LaForte had a managerial role within a sports gambling ring, utilizing an offshore website that is not legally sanctioned in New York state, officials said.

From September 2022 to March 2023, the operation involved more than 70 bettors who wagered nearly $23 million.

According to the indictment, LaForte supervised several sheet-holders – individuals who manage the bets and collections for individual bettors – and other individuals who participated in the gambling operation.

Often, the gamblers would fall into debt and the people running the operation exploited their hard luck, offering to bail them out — with outrageous loans they could never pay back — officials said.

“This case is a stark reminder that organized crime continues to thrive in the New York metropolitan area,” said Commissioner Paul Weinstein of the New York Waterfront Commission. “The Gambino crime family has historically exerted its influence on the Port of New York. Disruption of its profits from gambling and loansharking weaken that family’s grip.”