Latest news with #AnthonyVillani
New York Post
10-07-2025
- New York Post
Mafia captain from one of NYC's ‘five families' sentenced for running illegal gambling racket
That's a La Cosa No-No-stra. A Mafia captain was sentenced Wednesday for running an illegal online betting operation that netted nearly $25 million over the past 25 years, according to federal prosecutors. US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto gave Anthony Villani, a reputed Lucchese crime family soldier, 21 months in the slammer for his involvement in the racket, officials said. Villani, a 60-year-old resident of Elmsford, pleaded guilty earlier in the year to racketeering, money laundering and illegal gambling. The captain owned Rhino Sports, an online business employing Mafia figures as local bookmakers. The operation, which was based in the Bronx and Westchester county, took in at least $1 million annually from thousands of gamblers, federal prosecutors said. United States District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto sentenced Anthony Villani, a captain in the Lucchese organized crime family, to 21 months in prison following his conviction for racketeering with predicate acts of money laundering and illegal gambling, officials said Paul Martinka Villani recruited and employed 'trusted associates' to help him manage the illegal gambling outfit, officials said. He also extorted someone between October 2019 and October 2020, threatening them over $300,000 they stole from Rhino Sports, according to prosecutors. 'I'm not going to repeat myself. I'm not going to ever say this again. We're just going to have a problem if I find out. Alright? And I don't want to threaten you with my friends or anything, I'm not gonna, you put me in a f—–g hole with this guy,' Villani reportedly warned on April 27, 2020. Anthony Villani employed co-defendants James Coumoutsos and Michael Praino — who went by the nicknames 'Quick' and 'Platinum' — as bookmakers, federal prosecutors said. Paul Martinka 'Listen, get the f—–g money. I'm telling you right now, you don't get this money – f—–g run away,' he said, according to prosecutors. 'Go get this f—–g money,' Villani demanded months later, prosecutors said. The man on the receiving end of the threats believed Villani or other members of the Lucchese crime family would physically hurt or kill him if he did not repay the debt. The case was investigated by the Eastern District of New York's Organized Crime and Gangs Section.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Yahoo
Luchese crime family captain gets 21 months for $35 million offshore betting scheme
A Luchese crime family captain will spend 21 months behind bars for running a $1 million-a-year offshore betting website that pivoted to online casino games after the COVID pandemic canceled sporting events in 2020, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled Wednesday. Anthony Villani, 60, of Pleasantville, ran a gambling operation called 'Rhino Sports' for decades, taking bets from 400 to 1,300 people a week, and netting at least $35 million in profits since the early 2000s. Villani's personal cut of the action amounted to some $15 million, prosecutors said. Villani moved the operation online in 2004 to dodge scrutiny after spending four months behind bars on gambling charges. But it all came crashing down after a federal indictment in 2022 which saw Villani and four others charged in the lucrative Luchese scheme. All five took plea deals in the case. Prosecutors were asking for more than three years behind bars, pointing out that Villani engaged in attempted extortion, when he threatened a bookmaker who stole $300,000 from the operation to try to get the money back. 'So just do the right thing. All right? I'm not going to repeat myself. I'm not going to ever say this again. We're just going to have a problem if I find out. All right? And I don't want to threaten you with my friends or anything … I'm just telling you there's no more talking about this from now until the day one of us dies. Me or you,' he told the bookie in one April 2020 conversation, according to court filings. In another conversation from October 2021, Villani said, 'Listen, get the f—ing money. I'm telling you right now, you don't get this money – f—ing run away.' Villani's lawyer, Henry Mazurek, asked Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto for a more lenient sentence describing Villani as a reformed man who has made a legitimate life for himself owning juice shops and who serves as the sole caregiver to his elderly mother and stepfather. 'You will never see Mr. Villani anywhere near this courthouse again,' Mazurek said. Villani, who pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering and illegal gambling, must also pay $4 million in forfeiture funds, Matsumoto ruled. 'Today's sentence holds Villani accountable for racketeering crimes committed on behalf of the Luchese organized crime family, while lining the enterprise's coffers and his own pockets with millions of dollars,' U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Wednesday. 'Illegal gambling and extortion may be commonplace for the Mafia, but a prison term is a bitter outcome for mobsters who show no regard for the law.'
