Long Island Mobster Pleads Guilty To Racketeering Charges

Earlier this month, Nicholas Festa, known as "Pudgie," a soldier in the Bonanno crime family, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in federal court. The charges were announced on Monday, along with the guilty pleas from two other Bonanno mobsters.

Festa, an Oceanside resident, pleaded guilty on March 8 to racketeering conspiracy and admitted to loansharking. On Monday, Ronald Giallanzo, known as "Ronnie G," a captain in the La Cosa Nostra, as the Bonanno family is known, and Michael Palmaccio, another soldier, also pleaded guilty to the same charges.

“Through their acts of violence, Giallanzo, Palmaccio and Festa reaped substantial illicit profits at the expense of their loansharking victims,” said United States Attorney Richard Donoghue. “With today’s guilty pleas, these defendants are being held responsible for their destructive role in perpetuating organized crime’s presence in the community.”

According to prosecutors, Giallanzo, Palmaccio and Festa were members of a Bonanno family “crew” that
operated primarily in Howard Beach, Queens. Giallanzo operated a lucrative loansharking business in which he provided money to, among others, Palmaccio and Festa, to extend and collect extortionate loans to numerous individuals.

Even while incarcerated for a prior federal conviction for racketeering and extortion conspiracy, Giallanzo kept watch over his loansharking business, directing his associates to commit acts of violence to ensure that the customers paid the exorbitant weekly interest rate. At one point, Giallanzo had lent over $3 million in extortionate loans to customers. Giallanzo, Palmaccio and Festa were arrested by the
FBI in March 2017.

As part of the plea, Festa admitted to collecting loan payments from two different victims, and agreed to forfeit $500,000. All three face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, though they have not yet been sentenced.

“Mobsters are known for lending large amounts of money at exorbitant rates to individuals who they know lack the financial means of paying off their loans,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney. “They intentionally extort their victims over extended periods of time using threats of violence as a means of collecting their weekly payments. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book for these crime families, and they’ve shown no inclination to stop harassing and intimidating communities in our area. Today’s guilty pleas demonstrate that the FBI’s New York Joint Organized Crime Task Force continues to investigate these organized crime groups to hold them accountable and to protect the public.”

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