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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Three months ago, the owners of two prominent Staten Island businesses -- Top Tomato and Casale Tile -- were criminally charged with spearheading a lucrative Gambino crime family gambling and loansharking ring.
Now, prosecutors want to take a financial bite out of them.
The state attorney general's office has sued Carmine Sciandra, Benedetto (Benny) Casale and three others for the nearly $10 million their illegal operation allegedly reeled in. Prosecutors want the defendants to forfeit their ill-gotten gains or be slapped with a judgment for the cash.
The defendants have denied the charges.
Sciandra, who has addresses in Dongan Hills and Eltingville, co-owns three popular Top Tomato stores with his family. Todt Hill resident Casale owns the Bulls Head-based Casale Tile.
Sciandra, 57, ran the illicit multimillion-dollar sports-betting and usury operation in Staten Island, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, according to state Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. The scheme took place between May 2007 and August 2009.
Westerleigh resident Michael Murdocco aided Sciandra in the gambling operation along with bookmakers John D'Arpa of Brooklyn, and Vincent LaFace of West Pittston, Pa. The bookmaking business' wire room was based in Costa Rica and it was run via toll-free number and through an Internet site, prosecutors contend.
D'Arpa and LaFace allegedly paid yearly tribute money to Sciandra in exchange for his protection and also gave Murdocco a monthly cut.
In conjunction with the sports-betting ring, Sciandra, Casale and Murdocco loansharked at least 17 individuals, charging them interest rates that exceeded New York's criminal usury rate of 25 percent, said court papers. Reluctant payers were extorted and threatened with violence, said prosecutors. Casale, a reputed Gambino associate, was 68 at the time of his arrest, Murdocco was 64.
The five defendants were among 22 people, including 11 borough residents, charged in a series of wide-ranging schemes that included a reputed Luchese crime family loansharking and bookmaking operation run out of the Night Gallery, a New Dorp bar.
The five defendants in the civil suit are accused of various counts of criminal enterprise, bookmaking, loansharking and bribery. They are free on bond ranging from $250,000 to $750,000 and are due back in state Supreme Court, St. George, for a March 8 conference.
According to the civil suit, Sciandra, Murdocco and LaFace accepted $8.4 million in illegal wagers, while Sciandra, Murdocco and D'Arpa took nearly $1.3 million in illegal bets. Sciandra, Murdocco and Casale gave out illegal loans of at least $40,000. The attorney general seeks to reclaim that collective $9.7 million.
Source: MajorWager.com
