Genovese family has avoided rat infestation-unlike many rivals

Vito Genevese

“Benny Eggs ” getting  busted

The crime family formed 80 years ago and named after Vito Genovese has endured like no other.

The Genovese family has somehow avoided the top-level defectors who have hobbled all four of New York’s other families.

The Genovese clan — considered the most powerful crime family in America — has found insidious new ways to make money in the 21st century.

Take the subprime mortgage frenzy that forced thousands of homes into foreclosure. A Genovese associate found a way to get a piece of that.

The caper was run by Dominick DeVito, a 45-year-old dedicated con artist the FBI identifies as an associate of reputed Genovese capo Patsy Parrello

During the runup of housing prices from 2002 to 2004, DeVito ran a bogus real estate investment scheme, buying up multimillion dollar properties in suburban Westchester County.

 

He and his pals made up income histories to con banks into handing out multiple mortgages, then sold them at inflated prices.

They also took out more loans using the inflated values of the houses as collateral, then defaulted on the loans. Several houses wound up in foreclosure

They managed to fit three scams into one, obtaining insurance payments by claiming water damage caused by broken pipes in the homes — after breaking the pipes themselves.

DeVito was sentenced in March to 51 months in prison and is to surrender Sept. 15. His lawyer, George Santangelo, declined comment on DeVito’s mob ties

The Genovese family benefitted from the loosening of due diligence by banks during the housing spike. Prosecutors say loanshark victims sometimes obtained home equity loans to pay off debts to their mob bankers.

The Genovese family also found ways to use new technology to improve on old reliable scams such as illegal gambling, law enforcement sources say.

In last year’s prosecution of Daniel Leo, former boss of the family, prosecutors said he controlled multiple bookmaking operations that reaped millions of dollars.

What was new was that not all transactions were person-to-person: some customers placed bets through offshore sites via the Internet.

The mob also may have inspired a Long Island con man’s $100 million Ponzi scheme. Nicholas Cosmo owed Genovese family associates tens of thousands of dollars in gambling debt, authorities said.

Cosmo was busted in January and investigators have since questioned a Genovese associate turned mob informant, Michael (Cookie) D’Urso, about Cosmo.

The Genovese family also took full advantage of the city’s building boom through control of several construction firms. They even got in on the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site

thanks  Greg B. Smith