86 Year Old Mobster Gets Two Years Prison for Punching Out Steakhouse Owner Over Gambling Debt
An elderly mobster has been sentenced to two years prison following an assault charge.
Prosecutors were hoping the 86-year-old Anthony “Rom” Romanello would get a stiffer sentence having got off rather easily for alleged criminal involvement over the past decade.
A capo of the Queens-based Federici crew, Romanello pleaded guilty to illegal gambling after the cooperating witness died from a heart attack before testifying in the case.
He was convicted in December of extortion-related charges after he punched steakhouse owner Shuqeri “Bruno” Selimaj on May 11, 2017, to collect an $86,000 gambling debt owed by the restaurateur’s kin. The assault was caught on video.
Selimaj’s nephew, Toni, and the nephew’s brother-in-law, Eddie, lost big gambling with a Queens ring run by bookie Michael Regan, according to prosecutors.
Romanello’s lawyer, Gerald McMahon, called the charges a “meatball case” believing prosecutors hoped his client would do something more serious so they could try to flip him against now-deceased Genovese big Anthony “Tough Tony” Federici.
“When the government asks for 71 months, and the judge gave 24, thank God justice was done in Brooklyn,” an ebullient McMahon said after the sentencing in Brooklyn Federal Court Monday. “His lawyer thinks, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Rom has no regrets.”
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
