Mafia crime boss Benjamin ‘The Claw’ Castelazzo has been jailed for just 15 months for money laundering after his lawyers successfully argued a longer sentence would jeapardize his health and he could end up homeless.
Castelazzo, 88, who quipped he got his nickname after he worked as a carpenter who was accustomed to using claw hammers, was handed the lighter sentence by a Brooklyn federal judge on Monday – despite prosecutors seeking 27 months.
Castelazzo’s attorney Ilana Haramati said a prison sentence a longer jail term could ‘effectively turn into a death sentence’ for the notorious Colombo crime family’s underboss due to his ailing health including a bout of prostate cancer.
Haramati told the Judge Hector Gonzalez that Castelazzo, who pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy, suffers from a series of health issues – including a decades-long problem with his heart – that means he is on a variety of medications.
The attorney argued that Castelazzo would not receive proper care in a federal prison. ‘He goes to the doctor often. He gets checkups. He’s on a whole battery of medications,’ Haramati told the court, as reported by the New York Post.
Castelazzo, 88, who quipped he got his nickname after he worked as a carpenter who was accustomed to using claw hammers, was handed the lighter sentence by a Brooklyn federal judge on Monday – despite prosecutors seeking 27 months
But prosecutors argued that his apparently ailing health has not stopped him from enjoying an alleged mafioso lifestyle, arguing that issues with his wellbeing only seem to pop up when he’s in court over his family’s dealings.
The mafia boss’s defence attorney’s also argued that a new conviction would see him lose his subsidized apartment and leave him ‘homeless’.
Castelazzo was charged in 2021 as part of a sweeping federal indictment charging nine members of the Colombo crime family in a scheme involving labor union shakedowns, extortion, loansharking, drug trafficking and money laundering.
He spent time in jail before posting a $1.6 bond in early 2022.
Referring to Castelazzo’s subsidized apartment, attorney Michael Marinaccio told the court: ‘He didn’t lose it when he was in for six months, but he was kind of on the brink.’
As Judge Gonzalez sentenced Castelazzo to 15 months in prison starting from March 22, he told him: ‘Hopefully this will be the end [of the alleged crime family dealings] but only time will tell.’
Castelazzo’s sentencing comes a month after Ralph DiMatteo, 68, the alleged ‘number three’ member of the Colombo crime family, was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to racketeering involving extortion and money laundering.
He was caught after his son, Angelo, took a photo of him shirtless in a Florida swimming pool with a large gold chain around his neck.
Angelo posted a rat emoji to his social media shortly after his father was arrested, seemingly claiming that someone had ratted him out.
But the photo, shared to social media, was the key to his capture, as cops used it to figure out his location.
When asked in court whether he regretted the photo, he merely asked: ‘Why? It was a great picture.’
Ralph DiMatteo, 68, (pictured) the alleged ‘number three’ member of the Colombo crime family, was sentenced to three years in prison this week
DiMatteo served as a consigliere, an advisor to the Colombo family boss
DiMatteo was one of 14 defendants charged for allegedly committing crimes as members of the Colombo family.
One of his goons, Vincent ‘Vinny Unions’ Ricciardo, was found to have bullied a high-ranking union official into paying $2,600 a month to the mob family as a ‘pension’ for nearly 20 years, totaling nearly $600,000.
DiMatteo was directly responsible for overseeing Ricciardo, and the consigliere was caught on wiretapped phone called telling Vinny Unions to hurry his extortion efforts up.
‘Part of the privilege of being towards the top is that you don’t have to get your hands dirty yourself. You have other people do that on your behalf,’ Assistant US Attorney Michael Gibaldi said at DiMatteo’s sentencing.
The family also pressured a union-associated health fund into picking mob-friendly vendors paying an eyewatering tribute of $10,000 a month.
In 2022, DiMatteo was freed from a Brooklyn jail on a $5 million bond despite federal prosecutors’ objections that he was still conducting mafia business.
Brooklyn Federal Court Magistrate James Cho said the mobster was not a flight risk and that home detention and phone monitoring was enough to ‘alleviate the risk.’
It is currently unclear who remains to take control of the Colombo syndicate on the street.
Indeed, in July 2023, the Colombo crime family’s boss-in-waiting – Theodore ‘Skinny Teddy’ Persico, 59 – was jailed for labor racketeering in a move that left the Mafia clan without a leader.
Theodore ‘Skinny Teddy’ Persico, 59, struck a deal with Brooklyn prosecutors, meaning he was not available to lead the Colombo crime family as he’d been ordained to do
Persico became one of six purported Colombo mobsters who accepted pleas in the massive case that devastated the clan’s leadership in 2021.
Persico – the nephew of the late Colombo godfather Carmine ‘the Snake’ Persico – was accused of conspiring with now-deceased Colombo boss Andrew ‘Mush’ Russo to shake down a Queens-based union and launder the funds, in a ploy that ran for 20 years.
The entire administration of the Colombo crime family, including Russo and Castellazzo, have already pleaded guilty to a variety of mobster activities in 2012.
The New York mafia has been weakened by several blows in recent years, including arrests, fratricidal struggles and competition from other criminal organizations, but they are still considered active.