Gambino Mobster Gets 40 Years For Murdering Friend Over $750K: Feds

NEW YORK CITY — A Gambino mobster who opted to murder his longtime friend instead of returning $750,000 got what is likely to be an effective death sentence.

Anthony Pandrella, 63, was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in prison, federal prosecutors said.

The decades-long sentence follows a trial in June, during which jurors took 90 minutes to find Pandella guilty of shooting and killing Vincent Zito, 77, a Sheepshead Bay loan shark who was his longtime friend.

But Pandrella made the cold-blooded choice of money over friendship, said United States Attorney Breon Peace.

“All for greed, the defendant ruthlessly executed his longtime friend after being welcomed into his home,” stated United States Attorney Peace.

Pandrella and Zito were friends for more than 30 years, authorities said.

Their friendship was so deep that when Zito found out he was under investigation for an illegal loansharking business, he turned to Pandrella for help, prosecutors said.

Zito gave Pandrella $750,000 for safekeeping, in hopes of keeping it from law enforcement, authorities said.

The mobster, however, never returned the money, even after Zito tried to collect it, prosecutors said. He instead visited Zito and shot him in the back of the head, authorities said.

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Gambino Mobster Killed Friend Over $750K, Jury Finds