Judge denies Gotti grandson’s third bid to delay prison, orders surrender today

Carmine Agnello ordered to report to federal prison by 4 p.m. Monday after judge rejected his latest request to push back his surrender

The third time certainly was not the charm.

A federal judge on Monday denied John Gotti’s grandson Carmine Agnello’s third attempt to delay his prison surrender, ordering him to report to the Bureau of Prisons by 4 p.m., hours after his lawyer made a last-ditch plea to the court.

U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury had already given Agnello, 39, of East Norwich two extensions on his original July 20 surrender date, both tied to his plan to donate a kidney to his mother, Victoria Gotti, who has chronic kidney disease.

The most recent order was issued Aug. 6. It gave Agnello, who pleaded guilty in 2024 to a $1.1 million COVID-19 relief fraud scheme, until Monday to either undergo the transplant or report to prison.

Agnello’s attorney, Robert Beltrani, filed an emergency letter on Monday asking Choudhury to push the surrender date to Sept. 18 anyway, arguing that even though no transplant is scheduled, Agnello needs to remain free to complete pre-operative testing once his mother is medically cleared.

Attached to the filing was a note from Victoria Gotti’s nephrologist stating she has “recurrent infections necessitating the cancellation of any potential transplant” and that doctors are still working to identify the cause.

Federal prosecutors pushed back hard, with assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kelly writing that the defense was seeking a delay “without any surgery even scheduled,” calling it clear that the transplant “is not imminent.”

Choudhury agreed. In a sharply worded order, the judge noted that the court had already granted two deferrals based on Agnello’s representations that a transplant would happen by Aug. 10, and that the Sept. 18 date was chosen specifically to give him recovery time after a procedure that was supposed to already be scheduled.

With “no concrete evidence that an organ transplant will be scheduled to take place at any time between today and Sept. 18,” Choudhury ruled, a third delay was “unjustified.”

Top: AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file

Prior coverage

Judge gives Gotti grandson kidney-or-prison ultimatum with hard Aug. 10 deadline

UPDATE: Sentencing delayed for John Gotti’s grandson in federal fraud case

Gotti grandson says prison could cost his mother her life