Monday was deadline day for John Gotti’s grandson Carmine Agnello to donate a kidney to his mom, Victoria Gotti, or go to prison — and a federal judge rejected the “Growing Up Gotti” star’s last-minute request to push back his date to surrender on fraud charges.
Agnello, 40, was given an ultimatum last week after his lawyer announced that oft-delayed kidney transplant to his mother, Victoria Gotti, on Aug 3, would need to be postponed yet again. That ultimatum: go through with the kidney transplant by Monday, and stay free until Sept. 18, or report to prison to start his 15-month COVID fraud sentence.
On Monday, his lawyer, Robert Beltrani, asked U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury to push the deadline back and let him keep the Sept. 18 date, along with a letter from Victoria Gotti’s doctor insisting that “a renal transplant cannot be performed until her infections are fully treated.”
Choudhury held firm on her deadline, though, giving Agnello just two extra hours of freedom. He was required to surrender to either the U.S. Marshals or the Bureau of Prisons by 4 p.m. Monday, the judge ruled. There was no immediate word if he’d done so.
Agnello is expected to serve his sentence in a minimum-security prison camp in Fairton, N.J., a source familiar with the matter said Monday.
Beltriani had argued that starting his sentence would essentially mean he wouldn’t be able to give his ma his kidney.
“If Carmine is required to surrender later today (Monday, August 10) he will essentially be disqualified as an option to serve as his mother’s living donor at the very time that his mother’s medical team is working to determine when she can safely proceed with the transplant,” Beltrani wrote.
He added, “Carmine understands his obligation to surrender on September 18 and is not seeking to avoid that obligation. He is simply asking the Court to allow him to remain available to his mother during this very limited period while he doctors determine whether and when she can proceed with transplant.”
Federal prosecutors responded to the request saying they oppose the delay, pointing out that the surgery isn’t even scheduled yet.
“The medical report attached to defendant’s letter and filed on ECF states that the recipient ‘has had recurrent infections necessitating the cancellation of any potential transplant. A workup is being performed to identify the etiology and the proper treatment for these infections,”Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kelly wrote.
“Clearly, the transplant surgery is not imminent.”
The judge agreed with Kelly, writing in her order, “Because there is no concrete evidence that an organ transplant will be scheduled to take place at any time between today and September 18, 2026, the request for another deferral of Mr. Agnello’s self-surrender is unjustified.”
Agnello was supposed to start serving his 15-month sentence for COVID fraud back on June 20, but Choudhury gave him a two-month reprieve, pushing that sentencing date to Sept. 18 so he could undergo the transplant.
His lawyer, Robert Beltrani, initially filed affidavits from two doctors assuring the procedure was happening on Aug. 3. But that day passed with no kidney transplant — Victoria Gotti had a serious infection that prevented her from going under the knife, and was placed on a battery of antibiotics, the lawyer said.
It wasn’t the first time the kidney transplant was postponed.
Back in March, Agnello’s lawyer at the time, Steven Metcalf, pleaded with the judge to cut his client a break and give him home confinement instead of prison time, because Victoria Gotti desperately needed transplant surgery, which was “scheduled to occur imminently.”
“In Mr. Agnello’s case, incarceration would impose irreversible harm on an innocent third party—his mother—by foreclosing the only viable path to preserving her life through kidney transplantation,” he wrote. “No legitimate legal interest is served by a sentence that effectively sentences an innocent person to death.”
Victoria Gotti also begged in a letter to the judge to keep Agnello out of prison because “he is giving me the GIFT OF LIFE.”
He was supposed to be sentenced March 13, but the day before, Metcalf got an extension after telling the judge Agnello was slated for pre-op testing ahead of a March 30 surgery date. That surgery didn’t happen, though, and on April 13, Agnello’s new lawyer at the time, Jeffrey Lichtman, clarified that Victoria Gotti wasn’t on the precipice of death after all.
“While she suffers from ‘advanced chronic kidney disease,’ her renal function has not yet deteriorated to the point when surgery is required as the procedure has ‘significant risks and is only performed when absolutely indicated,’” Lichtman wrote.
Licthman said the transplant wouldn’t actually happen for six to 12 months, and if she didn’t get the kidney when she needed, she’d require three days of dialysis a week.
Agnello was sentenced on April 20. In addition to serving 15 months in prison, he must also pay more than $1.26 million restitution to the Small Business Administration, serve two years of supervised release, and perform 100 hours of community service.
Federal prosecutors were asking for 33 to 41 months behind bars.
Agnello admitted to fraudulently applying for three COVID relief loans for his business, Crown Auto Parts, which he co-owned with his brothers, lying about the size of his payroll and falsely claiming he had no criminal record. He used $420,000 of the loan money to invest in a cryptocurrency business, according to the feds.
Agnello didn’t stay out of trouble while awaiting sentencing — he was busted on allegations he slapped, punched and choked his girlfriend outside his Nassau home June 2 because he thought she was cheating on him, then smashed her iPhone to the ground. He pleaded not guilty to felony criminal mischief and misdemeanor assault and obstruction of breathing charges, and is slated to return to court in Nassau County Aug. 17.
