Nassau Mafia Member Convicted Of Racketeering, Extortion

SYOSSET, NY — A Syosset man has been convicted in federal court of plotting extortion and racketeering crimes with members and associates of the Genovese crime family of La Cosa Nostra, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Jurors found Frank Giovinco, 52, guilty of acts involving extortion, honest services fraud and unlawful kickback payments related to the family's control of two local labor union chapters, authorities said.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said Giovinco was a member of the Genovese crime family who "instilled fear in victims and propagated kickback schemes" to strengthen the family's stranglehold over two labor unions.

La Cosa Nostra, also known as the "Mob" or the "Mafia," operates through entities known as "families," federal prosecutors said. The largest of the families operating in the New York City area is the Genovese crime family, which inserted Giovinco in the early 1990s into a scheme to control the waste-carting industry, authorities said.

In recent years and continuing until 2017, Giovinco plotted with other members and associates of the family to commit varying crimes, prosecutors said. Giovinco's activity centered on two local chapters of a labor union. He participated in schemes designed to manipulate and siphon money from the unions to benefit the family, authorities said.

Among his crimes, according to prosecutors: Giovinco extorted a financial adviser and a labor union official in exchange for a cut of commissions made from union investments. He was recorded planning to "rattle the cage" of one victim and have another victim's "feet held to the fire," prosecutors said. When the union official didn't pay the family commissions, Giovinco and others threatened him. Furthermore, Giovinco planned to profit from union investments by paying kickbacks to the union official and others in exchange for a cut of future commissions. Giovinco also participated in a long-running extortion of a union president for yearly tribute payments of more than $10,000, and sought a job at the union to exert control over the union official on the family’s behalf, and threatened to replace the union official.

Giovinco was convicted of racketeering conspiracy and faces up to 20 years in prison on each count. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 11.