Andrew Campos, 51, a captain of the La Cosa Nostra organized crime family, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for participation in wire fraud and money laundering.
“As a captain in the Gambino crime family, Campos has engaged in multiple fraud and money laundering schemes and maintained the corrosive influence of organized crime in the construction industry,” said Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Among other fraudulent schemes, Campos paid employees of his carpentry company - CWC Contracting in cash without paying taxes, defrauding the IRS of some $1.3 million. He and his co-conspirators laundered money by making out checks which were cashed for construction projects that were never performed.
“Andrew Campos led a scheme that lined his pockets and cheated taxpayers,” said IRS Special Agent Thomas Fattorusso. “He failed to pay more than $1 million in payroll taxes and laundered money to build his personal residence.”
This is not the first time Campos has been convicted of large-scale fraud schemes under CWC Contracting. Last year, Campos pleaded guilty to a massive fraud scheme centered around New York’s construction industry, which earned millions of dollars in criminal proceeds.
The Gambino Family is one of the “Five Families” that dominate criminal activities in New York and New Jersey as part of the Italian-American mafia La Cosa Nostra. The five families have long been entrenched in New York City’s construction industry and labor unions.
The family has roots which go back over a century to Sicilian-American street gangs in East Harlem at the turn of the 20th century. Following the establishment of ‘The Commission’ – a loose ruling body which delineated territory and created the current hierarchy of the Italian-American Mob.
