A reputed soldier in the Gambino crime family who conceived and operated a $650 million Internet-porn and phone-sex rip-off – said to be the largest consumer fraud scheme in U.S. history – was sentenced Monday to nine years in prison.
Richard Martino, 46, faced a maximum of 10 years behind bars, but Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Carol Amon took Martino’s numerous charitable deeds performed for his employees into consideration. In addition, Martino must forfeit $15 million.
Martino, who once received accolades from late mob boss John Gotti for his ingenuity as a money earner for the crime family, developed a scheme to cheat Internet-porn viewers and phone-sex customers by billing them for services that had not been requested or assumed were free.
Prosecutors estimated that Martino’s scheme cost consumers $650 million.
Brooklyn Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Komitee said of Martino’s scam, “This is the most sophisticated Internet fraud that anyone on this side of the table has ever seen.”
Martino’s lawyers countered with the argument that the number of complaints on file with the Federal Trade Commission did not come close to matching the feds’ estimate of the scope of the fraud.
Prosecutors answered that the victims may not have acknowledged to the government – or their wives – that they had the porn habit.
