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Long Island resident Salvatore Rubino, age 60, of Bethpage, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, April 16, at federal court in Brooklyn to operating the business.
Earlier this month, four co-defendant members and associates of the Genovese crime family admitted to various felony charges stemming from their long-running operation of several lucrative gambling operations in New York City. Of the five charged, four are from Long Island.
Carmelo “Carmine” Polito, age 64, of Whitestone, Queens, a former acting captain and a soldier within the Genovese crime family, pleaded guilty to racketeering involving the operation of the business and attempted extortion.
Joseph Macario, also known as “Joe Fish,” age 69, of West Islip. a soldier within the Genovese crime family, also pleaded guilty to racketeering.
Joseph Rutigliano, also known as “Joe Box,” 65, of Commack, and Mark Feuer, age 61, of Oceanside, pleaded guilty to felony charges relating to the operation of various illegal gambling businesses associated with the crime family.
“With their guilty pleas, these five members and associates of the Genovese crime family have admitted they committed crimes to benefit a criminal enterprise notorious for inflicting harm on our communities for generations,” stated United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace. “As long as the Mafia doesn’t get it that illegal gambling is a losing proposition, they can bet on this office and our partners vigorously enforcing the law and flushing them out of the shadows, as in this case, where they operated secretly in a coffee bar and a shoe repair shop.”
Peace expressed his appreciation to the New York City Police Department and the Nassau County Police Department for their invaluable assistance in the investigation.
“These Mafia figures operated surreptitiously in back rooms of restaurants and retail locations in suburban Long Island, running underground gambling parlors and kicking up the profits to the Genovese crime family,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly. “For decades, organized crime families have steered violence and other illicit activities in our communities. With our partners at the EDNY, FBI, and the Nassau County Police Department, we are doubling down on driving out these illegal gambling operations.”
As detailed in earlier court filings and facts presented at the guilty plea hearings, beginning in at least May 2012, the Genovese and Bonanno families jointly operated a lucrative illegal gambling operation on Long Island called the Gran Caffe in Lynbrook.
The profits earned through the Gran Caffe and other illegal gambling locations generated substantial revenue, which was then “kicked up” to the crime families’ leaders.
Rutigliano and Rubino collected the proceeds for the Genovese crime family and distributed them to higher-ranking members, including Polito and Macario.
In addition to the Gran Caffe, the Genovese crime family — through Polito, Macario, Rutigliano, Rubino, and others — operated illegal gambling parlors at establishments called Sal’s Shoe Repair and the Centro Calcio Italiano Club.
Carmelo Polito, a former acting captain in the Genovese crime family, also operated an illegal online gambling scheme in which bets were placed on sporting events through a website called “PGWLines.”
In connection with his operation of PGWLines, Polito attempted to extort an individual who lost several thousand dollars in bets he placed through the website.
For example, in an October 2019 call concerning a delinquent debtor whose “face” Polito had previously threatened to “break,” Polito instructed another individual to relay a new message to the debtor: “Tell him I’m going to put him under the (expletive deleted) bridge.”
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