Genovese Family Soldier Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Racketeering and Extortion Crimes

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced today that Emilio Fusco, a member of the Genovese Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra (the “Genovese Crime Family”), was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 25 years in prison for various racketeering conspiracy and extortion crimes. Fusco was convicted in May 2012 of one count of conspiring to participate in the affairs of the Genovese Organized Crime Family, one count of conspiring to extort the owner of various restaurants and strip clubs in Springfield, Massachusetts, and one count of interstate travel in aid of racketeering after a three-week jury trial before U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, who also imposed today’s sentence. At today’s sentencing, Judge Castel also found that Fusco committed the November 2003 murders of Adolfo Bruno and Gary Westerman in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “Emilio Fusco devoted much of his life to the business and commission of crime on behalf of his ‘family,’ the notorious Genovese Crime Family. Today’s stiff sentence should send a message to organized crime that we are as committed as ever to stamping you out.”

According to the evidence admitted at trial and other documents filed in the case:

Fusco was inducted into the Genovese Crime Family in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the mid-1990s. From the early 2000s until 2008, Fusco conspired with others to extort a business owner in Springfield, Massachusetts. During that period, Fusco and his co-conspirators received up to $12,000 per month from the business owner.

In 2006, after completing a 33-month sentence in Massachusetts in connection with separate racketeering and money laundering convictions in the District of Massachusetts, he also extorted numerous other businesses and individuals in Springfield.

In addition to the racketeering conspiracy and extortion crimes for which Fusco was charged in this district, he was also charged with conspiring with other members of the Genovese Crime Family to murder Adolfo Bruno, who was then the captain of the family’s Springfield, Massachusetts faction; and with the murder of Gary Westerman, a Genovese Crime Family associate whom Fusco and others believed to be cooperating with law enforcement. At trial, the jury acquitted Fusco of the murder charges, but Judge Castel found by a preponderance of the evidence at sentencing that Fusco committed the murders.

Fusco also engaged in marijuana distribution, loansharking, and illegal gambling crimes for the Genovese Crime Family.

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In addition to his prison term, Fusco, 44, of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, was sentenced to three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to forfeit $$260,000 and pay a $300 special assessment fee.

Fusco’s co-defendants, Nigro, Fotios Geas, and Ty Geas were each sentenced in September 2011 to life in prison.

Mr. Bharara praised the work of the FBI’s New York Field Office and the FBI’s Springfield, Massachusetts Resident Agency. Mr. Bharara also praised the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts State Police, the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office, the Springfield Police Department, the Department of Justice’s Legal Attache at the United States Embassy in Italy, the Italian Caribinieri, and Interpol.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Daniel S. Goldman and Nicholas L. McQuaid are in charge of the prosecution.