U.S. News

John Gotti’s Grandson Was Arrested for Choking His Girlfriend Weeks Before Reporting to Prison

By Mike Harper · June 6, 2026

Carmine Agnello knows something about the justice system. His grandfather was John Gotti — the Gambino crime boss who beat federal indictments three times before dying in prison in 2002. His mother is Victoria Gotti. He has watched, from a close distance, how the machinery of federal prosecution works.

On Thursday, Agnello, 40, was arraigned on Long Island on new charges that will complicate whatever timeline he had arranged for his life. He faces third-degree assault and criminal obstruction of breathing — choking — charges following an alleged attack on his girlfriend. The arraignment came weeks before he is scheduled to surrender to federal prison on a separate conviction — a $1.1 million COVID relief loan fraud scheme in which he was found guilty of stealing from the same emergency programs that were designed to keep small businesses alive during the pandemic.

The timing is the most embarrassing part of the new charges. Agnello was convicted on the COVID fraud case, he had his sentencing, and he received a date on which he was to report to federal custody. That date has not yet arrived. In the window between his conviction and his surrender, he is alleged to have choked his girlfriend.

The assault case is separate from his federal conviction and will be prosecuted in New York state court. Whether the new charges affect his federal surrender date depends on how state court proceedings unfold. Defense attorneys in these situations typically negotiate to ensure the state case does not delay a federal sentence that is already structured.

COVID relief fraud prosecutions have become one of the DOJ’s consistent enforcement priorities since 2022, when it became clear that the speed and accessibility of the Paycheck Protection Program had created significant opportunities for fraud alongside the legitimate relief it provided. A June 2025 DOJ report put confirmed COVID relief fraud convictions at more than 3,500 cases, with total recovered funds exceeding $1.4 billion. Agnello’s $1.1 million case sits near the top tier of individual amounts in those cases.

He has a date to report to federal prison. The date is still in the future. In the meantime, he has a new set of criminal charges, a new attorney assignment, and a new arraignment on his record.