The son of a mob enforcer will likely serve several additional months in prison for throwing around the names of Outfit figures as he tried to help shake down a businessman nearly seven years ago.
U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso sentenced 42-year-old John Joseph Rainone to 33 months in prison Thursday for the attempted extortion. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rajnath Laud said there is no indication Rainone was acting at the direction of the mob, despite the name-dropping.
Rainone was quietly indicted in 2015 with his 83-year-old grandfather, who shares the same name. The younger Rainone admitted his role in the scheme last October, and his grandfather pleaded guilty in February.
However, the young Rainone was not present when his grandfather made the most explicit threat about sending “the rough guys to collect.” The feds also say the young Rainone has been cooperating in their investigations, and the judge ducked into his chambers Thursday to learn more about that cooperation from Laud and Rainone’s defense attorney, Joshua Herman.
The young Rainone is already in federal custody, serving a 38-month sentence handed down in 2015 for fraud and identity theft, records show. And Alonso said he should get credit for the time he spent in prison since March 2016, when a second indictment was filed in the latest extortion case.
As a result, the judge predicted Rainone will serve only an additional eight months behind bars.
Rainone and his grandfather are the son and father of Mario Rainone, former muscle for the Outfit who is now serving a 15-year prison sentence. Prosecutors have accused him of using violence and threats to squeeze Outfit debtors, even threatening to chop off the heads of a restaurateur and his children if he wasn’t paid $200,000.
However, Mario Rainone was mentioned only vaguely in court Thursday. Herman told the judge that family can sometimes play a positive role in a person’s life. Or it can be a “destructive force.”
Pointing to family members who filled a row of seats in the courtroom, including the young Rainone’s wife and stepchildren, Herman said, “it is that family that John is loyal to.”
Rainone also apologized and told the judge, “I’m not the same person, like I was 10 years ago.”
Rainone and his grandfather have admitted that in August 2010 they told a businessman that a reputed Outfit leader wanted to be “taken care of” and demanded $10,000. The businessman refused to pay. The younger Rainone then told him in October 2010 that he had to pay $2,000 a month in “street tax” after the unnamed Outfit leader had gone to prison.
During a meeting at a Bartlett Dunkin’ Donuts, the younger Rainone told the businessman, “You’re going to have to pay.”
The two Rainones met the businessman at a Dominick’s later that month, where the older Rainone searched him for a recording device. He told the businessman that “nobody is going to give you a problem if you do the right thing” and then he demanded $5,000 a month. When the businessman asked if he could pay less, the elder Rainone said he’d have to check because “everybody answers to somebody.”
They met at the Dominick’s again the next day, where the elder Rainone said, “You’re going to have a little problem later on” if he didn’t pay $4,000 a month. The businessman agreed to make the payment Oct. 13, 2010, but the elder Rainone showed up at his business a day early and insisted on receiving the payment. The businessman refused.
The elder Rainone then said “they” were going to “send the rough guys to collect,” court records show.