In what prosecutors called one of the biggest consumer frauds in history, six reputed Gambino Family members have pleaded guilty February 14 in an Internet porn and telephone slam scam that ran over $600 million in unauthorized charges to telephone customers.
The sextet included Richard Martino, who masterminded the Net porn scam, and Salvatore LoCascio, a reputed capo in the Gambino family and the son of former Gambino consigliori Frank LoCascio. The six agreed to give up millions in proceeds from their crimes but they also face possible millions more in fines and restitution orders.
Martino pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud in a scam which victimized credit card holders looking to take free tours of Internet porn sites. The cardholders learned the hard way that they were hit with charges believed to have totaled over $200 million, when they thought their credit card numbers were going only for age verification, according to prosecutors in the case.
The phone slam scam involved setting up dummy companies pushing such free services as phone sex, psychic readings, and horoscopes, except that if you called any of the numbers you triggered a round of unauthorized charges on your telephone bill—charges that were believed to hit $420 million.
LoCascio pleaded to money laundering in the case and faces up to nine years behind bars, which could end up less if his attorneys have their way, calling for lesser time because his wife suffers from multiple sclerosis.
One of the six—Zef Mustafa, an ethnic Albanian born in a refugee camp in Italy—faces up to six years in prison and eventual deportation after he pleaded guilty to money laundering and agreed to give up almost $2 in assets. Martino’s brother, Daniel, pleaded to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces up to five years in prison, forfeiting $1.5 million. Richard Campos and Thomas Pugliesi each pleaded to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, facing up to two years behind bars and $300,000 in forfeitures.
When the case began, the charges included linking all six to the Gambino Family formally, but that was set aside during what prosecutors and published reports out of New York called “marathon plea negotiations.”
No one knows exactly why the racketeering and mob family allegations were set aside, but some published reports suggested prosecutors discovered they might have a hard time proving the Net porn and phone billing scams were specifically crime family businesses—even though Richard Martino is said to have a reputation as one of organized crime’s most tech-savvy operators.
Prosecutors suggested Richard Martino had funneled proceeds to LoCascio as tribute. LoCascio’s father is serving life imprisonment, following his 1992 conviction with the late Gambino boss John Gotti, Sr.
The two Martinos, LoCascio, Mustafa, Campos, and Pugliesi could have faced life imprisonment if convicted at trial of the phalanx of fraud and racketeering charges.
