Rosario Gangi
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Rosario "Ross" Gangi (b. November 10, 1939) is a New York City mobster and captain in the Genovese crime family.
On August 13, 1981, Gangi at the time a Genovese associate, was indicted in Manhattan on federal racketeering charges involving the Fulton Fish Market and Local 359 of the United Seafood Workers Union, which represents all of the market's fish handlers. At the time, Gangi was an influential businessman in the Fish Market, but answered to Genovese wiseguy Carmine Romano, who ran the Fish Market for the Genovese family.
In the early 1990s, Gangi became a captain in the Genovese crime family and alongside Brooklyn captain Alphonse "Allie Shades" Malangone, ran the family's fish rackets. During the mid-1990s, Gangi's son Thomas Gangi came under fire as an officer of Preferred Quality Seafood. The wholesaler company was evicted from the Fish Market because it failed to comply with an investigation into Ross Gangi's control of the $1 billion per year seafood industry at the market.
Also, during the mid-1990s, the surveillance wise and cagey Gangi caught a joint-tast force assembled by the FBI and NYPD, attempting to bring down the Genovese family. The security conscious family had made strides away from the Gotti-eque image, and it has helped to ensure that their powerful capos such as Gangi, avoid long prison terms.
On November 25, 1997, Gangi and his top soldier Ernest Montevecchi, along with Bonanno crime family captain Frank Lino, were indicted with other family members and associates in a massive stock fraud and manipulation indictment. The mobsters inflated the price of the stock of HealthTech International Inc., a Mesa, Ariz., health and fitness firm that is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market, and profited by selling the stock at the higher price, the indictment said. Tens of thousands of shares were given to the mobsters by top HealthTech officials Gordon Hall and Joe Kirkham, who were indicted in Arizona. In return for the gift of the stock, the crime families used mob-controlled brokers, whom they bribed and threatened, at the Wall Street firm of Meyers Pollock Robins Inc., to sell the stock, the indictment said. Six brokers of Meyers Pollock also were indicted. The indictment also alleged that the mobsters conspired to defraud the Staten Island Savings Bank, a thrift with branches in Staten Island and Brooklyn. Finally, the crew threatened violence against officers at Sun Records, who they also attempted to defraud.
On February 17, 1998, Gangi and a top New Jersey based associate named John Albert, were indicted for shaking down the contractors and scheming to defraud the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark International Airport. Gangi received kickbacks from companies working on the construction of the $350 million monorail, which were disguised as consulting fees. Also indicted was Gambino crime family soldier Vincent DiModica, who operated out of neighborhing Belleville, New Jersey.
On July 27, 1998, Rosario Gangi, and John Albert and Vincent DiModica, were convicted for their roles in the massive extortion scheme at Newark Airport. On January 21, 1999, Gangi pleaded guilty to his involvement in the Wall Street stock swindle case, and Gangi would be sentenced to a 97-month prison term [1].
Gangi's luck was certainly expiring, when on December 5, 2001, Gangi and Genovese captains Pasquale Parrello and Joseph Dente, Jr., charging them with extortion, robbery conspiracy, gun trafficking, loan sharking, labor racketeering and embezzlement, credit card fraud, trafficking in untaxed liquor and cigarettes, gambling and counterfeiting [2]. The indictment was the result of the undercover work of an NYPD officer who operated under the moniker "Big Frankie", who was actually being considered for induction by the Bronx-based Parrello who would often eat with the man at Arthur Avenue restaurants. Gangi pleaded guilty once again.
Gangi is expected to be released from federal prison in August of 2008, and is likely to have a major say in the Genovese crime family's affairs, representing the interests of the family's Brooklyn wing.
[edit] Further reading
- Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
- Jacobs, James B., Coleen Friel and Robert Radick. Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime. New York: NYU Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8147-4247-5
- Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8
