It wasn’t a lot of money, but the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office found the way to recover $12,000 in government dough that allegedly made its way into the coffers of the Colombo crime family through the well-orchestrated, sting-like largesse of turncoat gangster Andrew Koslosky, Mob Insider has learned.
Koslosky, a renowned singer for more than 30 years who has had roles in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway musicals and has been a featured soloist at many U.S. churches, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral, gave the cash to his mobster friends while he was wearing a wire for the FBI and tape recording their conversations for the feds.
Now it’s time to hand the free money back to the feds.
The four wiseguys — underboss Benjamin (The Claw) Castellazzo, consigliere Ralph (Big Ralph) DeMatteo, capo Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico and soldier Michael Uvino, have agreed to forfeit $3000 apiece before they face the music for their crimes on sentencing day, according to court records.
Sources say Koslosky, a longtime pal of capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo, began singing for the feds after he was arrested by FBI agents in April of 2021. He funneled the cash to the mob during the five months that he played along with Ricciardo’s plan to get Koslosky involved as a union consultant or employee to help the Colombos steal $10,000 a month in benefit funds from Local 621 of the United Construction Trades & Industrial Employees Union.
Neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors have been willing to discuss exactly when and how Koslosky improved his creds with the mobsters, or how he explained the alleged plunder he was sharing with them.
But plea agreements made by Persico, Castellazzo, DeMatteo and Uvino each note that as part of their deal, they are required to forfeit $3000 30 days before sentencing day.
That’s chump change compared to the $350,000 Ricciardo has agreed to forfeit as part of his own deal. His cousin Domenick Ricciardo, was required to forfeit $25,000 before he was sentenced. Prosecutors James McDonald, Devon Lash, Michael Gibaldi, and Andrew Reich required turncoat capo Richard Ferrara to forfeit only the illegal gun and ammunition that agents found in his home when they arrested him.
DeMatteo’s recommended prison term is 41-to-51 months; Uvino’s sentencing guidelines are 37-to-46 months, while Castellazzo’s are 21-to-27 months. The prosecutors have agreed not to seek a prison term above the guidelines for any of the defendants. The wiseguys can, and surely will, seek a sentence below the suggested guidelines.
The recommended prison terms of the three defendants who pleaded guilty to conspiring with the mobsters to steal funds from Local 621’s benefit plans — longtime Genovese associate Albert Alimena, as well as Ricciardo’s girlfriend, Erin Thompkins, and union pension consultant Joseph Bellantoni — are eight-to-14 months.
Upstate New York Mob Insider 