Richard Martino (born 1961) is a member of the New York

Gambino crime family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. ...

who was involved in

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

and phone scams that cost consumers $750 million. Martino introduced the

Cosa Nostra The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of local protect ...

into this area of crime.

Biography

A major earner for the Gambino family, Martino owned expensive homes in

Harrison, New York Harrison is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town and Administrative divisions of New York (state), village in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is a suburb of New York Cit ...

and

Southampton, New York Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stre ...

, wore Prada shoes, and drove a

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

car. Martino and Gambino capo Salvatore LoCascio created what appeared to be a

pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

. Like many such sites, visitors could tour it for free by providing credit card numbers to confirm they were adults. This concept originated from a cousin of Martino's who had created a course for men, instructing them "how to pick up girls." However, Martino and LoCascio then charged the visitors an unauthorized monthly website subscription. This scam cost consumers approximately $230 million. In a different scam, Martino and Locascio created a " cramming" scheme that sent bills to customer phone companies for unwanted services costing them $420 million. On March 18, 2003, Martino was charged in New York with federal racketeering fraud involving the website scam. On February 10, 2004, Martino was charged in New York in a second case with federal racketeering involving the phone scam. Finally, on January 25, 2005, Martino was charged in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

on federal charges of illegally obtaining subsidies from two federal programs. On February 14, 2005, in a

plea bargain A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include a ...

that covered both New York cases, Martino pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of extortion. On January 6, 2006, Martino was sentenced in Missouri to five years in prison and a $4.6 million fine. On January 30, 2006, Martino was sentenced in New York to nine years in federal prison. Martino was released from federal prison on July 15, 2014.

References

External links

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PCPro: The Soprano Connection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martino, Richard 1961 births Living people American gangsters of Italian descent Martino, Gambino American people convicted of money laundering American people convicted of fraud