The accused mobster son of a legendary Mafioso named “Quack Quack” was denied bail Tuesday within the sensational case involving NBA-tied rigged card video games — over considerations he’d return to his witness-tampering methods.
Legal professionals for Anthony Ruggiero Jr., 53, had pushed for a $5 million bond insured by his household and buddies in the course of the reputed Gambino mobster’s bail listening to in Brooklyn federal courtroom.
However Decide Joseph Marutollo agreed with prosecutors that Ruggiero’s historical past foreshadows what he’d do if launched: tamper with a witness.
Donna Dotan
Marutollo famous that Ruggiero, when incarcerated in a previous case, had threatened to kill a witness.
“He made his hand within the form of a gun and mentioned, ‘You know the way we maintain rats up shut and private,” the decide mentioned of the son of infamous late mobster Angelo Ruggiero Sr., whose motor-mouthed honking earned him the nickname “Quack Quack.”
Ruggiero sat glum in a tan jail outfit as Marutollo denied the bail package deal.
Quickly afterward, co-defendant Curtis Meeks, 41, pleaded not responsible to wire fraud and money-laundering prices.
Meeks, a former boxer who allegedly provided dishonest expertise utilized in rigged card video games, acquired a $250,000 bond.
The feds pushed for Meeks to be barred from playing – a possible drawback for the skilled gambler.
“I play within the World Sequence of Poker. If [the government] doesn’t need me to play, that’s wonderful,” Meeks mentioned in courtroom.
The decide in the end mentioned Meeks might want to notify pre-trial companies about any playing and journey.
Comply with The Publish’s newest on the playing scandal rocking the NBA:
The back-to-back hearings stemmed from explosive federal indictments final week that uncovered alleged Mafia sports activities playing and poker-rigging schemes intertwined with NBA gamers.
Ruggiero performed on dishonest poker groups inside 80 Washington Ave., a luxe Greenwich Village pad, the feds alleged.
The townhouse was one in every of two Manhattan areas the place high-stakes poker video games had been held by 4 of town’s strongest crime households, together with the Gambinos, the feds alleged.
The crooks allegedly used NBA Corridor of Famer Chauncey Billups, 49, the top coach of the Portland Path Blazers, and former NBA participant Damon Jones, 49, to behave as “face playing cards” to draw excessive rollers to the rigged big-money video games.
One purported sufferer who, alongside along with his poker buddies, was allegedly scammed out of $1 million claimed a former NFL participant additionally had acted because the entrance man throughout his dropping sport.
The feds have mentioned the son of “Quack Quack” not solely took his dad’s full Ruggiero identify but additionally his Mafia mantle.
The elder Ruggiero was a detailed buddy famed Gambino boss John Gotti and ended up an unwitting stool pigeon within the feds’ Nineteen Eighties probe into the mob household when he was caught on wiretaps characteristically blabbing incriminating grime.
Angelo Ruggiero Jr. is a made man within the Gambino household, with a mobbed-up rap sheet that features a conviction for threatening to kill a witness whereas nonetheless in jail, the feds detailed in a courtroom submitting final week.
“Finally, whereas along with the witness of their cell, the defendant made his hand into the form of a gun, pointed it on the witness’s head, and said, in sum and substance: ‘you understand how we maintain rats, we get up-close and private,’” courtroom papers state.
Ruggiero’s lawyer, James Frocarro, argued that his consumer needs to be out on bail as a result of the entire different alleged mobsters accused within the NBA scheme had been allowed out and that they, too, have been accused of getting dedicated severe offenses.
“Did I supply an excessive amount of to safe his launch?” Frocarro mentioned. “He has 5 million causes to conform.”
When pressed by the decide about Ruggiero’s gun-finger transfer, Frocarro accused the federal government of purposely placing the cooperating witness in his cell to make Ruggiero mad.
“Did they anticipate him to present him a kiss? He didn’t lay a hand on him!” Frocarro mentioned.
