Aged Colombo Underboss ‘The Claw’ Gets Leniency for Union Shakedown
A federal justice inwards Brooklyn opted to go wanton on an alleged Colombo criminal offence family underboss and former illegal play top banana because of his poorly health.
In July, Benjamin “The Claw” Castellazzo, 86, pleaded guilty to money laundering confederacy charges. These were related to his longstanding efforts to escape from down a Queens-based dig conjugation and occupy check of its healthcare benefit programs.
He was single of 14 individuals indicted in September 2021 about the scheme. Among those arrested were 10 capital of Sri Lanka members and associates.
On Monday, Castellazzo was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment despite prosecutors wanting more than II years.
Castellazzo’s lawyer, Ilana Haramati, argued that a long prison house term would aggravate her client’s poor health, which includes cardiac problems for which he must read a “battery of medications.” a federal prison house doom would “effectively move around into a death sentence,” she claimed.
Prison Would live ‘Death Sentence’
Prosecutors wanted to live why Castellazzo’s wellness issues only seemed to come up when he was inward the sorrel veneer charges for his modish crook escapade.
The defendant has referred to his wellness to each one time he has been before a tribunal in this district,” Brooklyn Assistant US Attorney Saint Andrew Steve Reich complained.
The elderly wise guy rope has a long knap tack dating plump for to the 1950s when he was imprisoned for stealing a tractor.
Pizza-gate
The lastly clip he was upward before a justice was inward 2013 when he pleaded guilty to extortion related to a stolen pizza pie sauce recipe.
In that case, Castellazzo accused Bonanno associates of stealing the recipe from a well-known Colombo-affiliated Brooklyn pizzeria. The competitor crime syndicate and so used the formula when it opened its have restaurant, and Castellazzo decided the Colombos deserved “royalties.” He was sentenced to 63 months.
“I put up recite your reward inwards all unassumingness that you will ne'er regard me before this or any tribunal of natural law again,” he told the justice then.
In 1995, Castellazzo was convicted of operating underground gaming dens that offered craps games and sports betting and conducted a numbers racket.
In the mid-1970s, he was sentenced to quartet years inwards prison house for his involvement inwards a heroin importation and dispersion ring.
Castellazzo earned his nickname, “the Claw,” because he had his claws inward everything, according to NJ.com.
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