Four Kings County crime bosses each face up to 20 years in prison after they pled guilty to racketeering in Brooklyn Federal Court this month, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The four men, who are all inducted members or associates of the Colombo organized crime family, conducted their schemes in the Borough of Churches, Staten Island, and other distant lands between March 2017 and June 2018, according to information provided by the attorney’s office. The quartet was indicted on the charges in federal court last July.
Gravesend resident Jerry Ciauri — also known as “Fat Jerry” — pled guilty to racketeering on Wednesday, according to information from the attorney’s office, which also indicated that the Colombo member made extortionate loans to six victims and used extortionate means to collect payments on those loans, in part by threatening to shoot his loansharking partner who had fallen behind on payments and ordering an associate to slash a victim’s tires in the middle of the night.
An associate of the family, Ridgite Salvatore Disano — who pled guilty to racketeering last week — helped Ciauri “in collecting debts enforced with extortionate means,” according to a rep for the attorney’s office.
Another inducted member of the family, Dyker Heights resident Vito Difalco — also known as both “Victor” and “The Mask” — and family associate Joseph Maratea, who lives in Park Slope, pled guilty in federal court last week as well.
The pair worked together to operate a loansharking business, according to information from the attorney’s office, which indicated that Difalco used extortionate means to collect debt from eight victims and that Maratea collected funds from five of those victims.
Difalco also threatened his victims in order to get them to pay their debts on time, and told one beleaguered borrower that in the past he had set on fire the cars of borrowers who failed to make their payments on time, according to the attorney’s office.
“Good things happen to me when I stay calm, see like I was by your house the other day…Four years ago, I would have put the Benz on fire,” Difalco told one victim, according to prosecutors.
A fifth member of the family, Joseph Rizzo — who lives in Staten Island — faces up to five years in prison after he pled guilty to stalking conspiracy on March 15, according to information from the attorney’s office.
Rizzo worked with Ciauri to stalk his former loansharking business partner after he pulled out of the business and started to cooperate with cops, according to prosecutors.
