In Brooklyn, a federal judge seems to have had enough of informant and former Bonanno family gangster Gene Borrello and sentenced him to six months for violating the conditions of his release from prison.
A Bonanno Family Gangster Turned Federal Informant Receives Six Months in Jail for Violating the Terms of His Probation
The 38-year-old was behind bars in the 2010s but was released in 2019 after five years for helping federal authorities put away a significant number of Bonanno members. Unlike many of his fellow former mobsters, Gene Borrello didn’t go clean as most on probation are expected.
Instead, it is reported that he took two trips to Florida before actually asking for permission to leave New York. While that is worse enough since he’s on his second chase already, he would blatantly violate his probation by appearing on YouTube and hosting a podcast discussing his criminal life—sometimes with other former gangsters.
Think of them as underworld round tables, basically.
Judge Frederic Block expressed his frustration in Borrello constantly violating the conditions given to him. About the former Bonanno member’s podcast, the judge said enough was enough. Certainly there are fans of these mafia stories but Borrello’s The Johnny and Gene Show podcast with John Rubeo was something of a slap to the face, it seems. Block would even said as much telling Borrello “I don’t like being made a fool of.”
Gene Borrello would tell Judge Block:
“You want to know why I went out there? I’ll be honest with you. Every other cooperator is on there and I’m not allowed to. Sammy Gravano is on there talking about killing people.”
While a violation of probation is cut and dry, Borrello isn’t necessarily wrong on this point. If there a podcast, docu-series, or documentary about the mob, Sammy the Bull and/or Michael Franzese—both mob informants from different families—will be on it.
As if figuring that now would be a good time to ask if Gene Borrello could turn himself next week, Judge Block shot the request down. He would also let Borrello lawyer, Nancy Ennis know that he wasn’’t comfortable with her client out and about.
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