A captain in the infamous Lucchese crime family was sentenced to nearly two years in prison for running a lucrative and illegal online gambling business.
Anthony Villani, 61, will spend 21 months behind bars, a judge ordered in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday. The alleged mobster pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering, and illegal gambling earlier this year.
As part of the sentence, Villani will be forced to pay $4 million in forfeiture.
“Today’s sentence holds Villani accountable for racketeering crimes committed on behalf of the Lucchese organized crime family, while lining the enterprise’s coffers and his own pockets with millions of dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, in a statement. “Illegal gambling and extortion may be commonplace for the Mafia, but a prison term is a bitter outcome for mobsters who show no regard for the law.”
According to court documents, Villani supervised an offshore online gambling enterprise called Rhino Sports from about 2004 to 2020, employing several other men — members of the La Cosa Nostra crime families — as “bookmakers.”
The men took hundreds of illegal bets in the New York City area each week, prosecutors said, and raked in at least $35 million over the years. Villani himself took home at least $15 million.
To disguise the illicit biz, Villani and his associates engaged in money laundering, per court documents, and Villani ordered one co-defendant, Dennis Filizzola, to use the betting money to purchase money orders under fake names — then disguise them as rental payments to Villani’s property companies.
The captain also threatened and extorted at least one anonymous man who owed the biz money.
“I’m not going to repeat myself. I’m not going to ever say this again. We’re just going to have a problem if I find out,” Villani told the man. “Alright? And I don’t want to threaten you with my friends or anything, I’m not gonna, you put me in a f—–g hole with this guy?”
Later, Villani told the same victim to “run away” if he couldn’t get the money, and the man feared he would be injured or killed by Villani or other members of the crime family over the debt.
Villani and his associates were arrested and charged in 2022. In 2020, federal agents seized tens of thousands of dollars in cash and several pieces of jewelry from a home in Elmsford, New York, where Villani was living at the time, documents show.
Villani initially pleaded not guilty on all counts, but in January changed his plea on the racketeering charges, and prosecutors dropped several other charges. Several of his alleged conspirators have also pleaded guilty, but have not yet been sentenced.
“Today’s sentencing should serve as a warning to the Mafia and all organized criminal members, the FBI will continue to hold you accountable for the illicit criminal enterprises you rely on to fund your lifestyles and broader criminal activity,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia, in a statement.
