Copyright New York Post
The accused mobster, son of a legendary Mafioso named “Quack Quack” was denied bail Tuesday in the sensational case involving NBA-tied rigged card games — over concerns he’d return to his witness-tampering ways. Lawyers for Anthony Ruggiero Jr., 53, had pushed for a $5 million bond insured by his family and friends during the reputed Gambino mobster’s bail hearing in Brooklyn federal court. But Judge Joseph Marutollo agreed with prosecutors that Ruggiero’s history foreshadows what he’d do if released: tamper with a witness. Marutollo noted that Ruggiero, when incarcerated in a past case, had threatened to kill a witness. “He made his hand in the shape of a gun and said, ‘You know how we take care of rats up close and personal,” the judge said of the son of notorious late mobster Angelo Ruggiero Sr., whose motor-mouthed honking earned him the nickname “Quack Quack.” Ruggiero sat glum in a tan prison outfit as Marutollo denied the bail package. Follow The Post’s latest on the gambling scandal rocking the NBA: NBAers Chauncey Billups, ‘Scary Terry’ Rozier arrested in major gambling bust involving 4 Mafia families, LA Lakers and LeBron James Who is Damon Jones? The other NBA player and LeBron James friend in middle of FBI betting, poker arrests Lakers, Raptors, Hornets, Trail Blazers involved in NBA gambling scandal: DOJ Reputed mobster busted in NBA scandal admitted trying to violently take over NYC garbage business ‘Scammer’ known as ‘Pookie’ in NBA poker scandal trashed NYC home — and left behind nude self-portrait: landlord The hearing was the latest stemming from explosive federal indictments last week that exposed alleged Mafia sports gambling and poker-rigging schemes intertwined with NBA players. Ruggiero played on cheating poker teams inside 80 Washington Ave., a luxe Greenwich Village pad, the feds alleged. The townhouse was one of two Manhattan locations where high-stakes poker games were held by four of the city’s most powerful crime families, including the Gambinos, the feds alleged. The crooks allegedly used NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and former NBA player Damon Jones, 49, to act as “face cards” to attract high rollers to the rigged big-money games. One purported victim who, along with his poker buddies, was allegedly scammed out of $1 million claimed a former NFL player also had acted as the front man during his losing game. The feds have said the son of “Quack Quack” not only took his dad’s full Ruggiero name but also his Mafia mantle. The elder Ruggiero was a close friend famed Gambino boss John Gotti and ended up an unwitting stool pigeon in the feds’ 1980s probe into the mob family when he was caught on wiretaps characteristically blabbing incriminating dirt. Angelo Ruggiero Jr. is a made man in the Gambino family, with a mobbed-up rap sheet that includes a conviction for threatening to kill a witness while still in prison, the feds detailed in a court filing last week. “Ultimately, while together with the witness in their cell, the defendant made his hand into the shape of a gun, pointed it at the witness’s head, and stated, in sum and substance: ‘you know how we take care of rats, we get up-close and personal,’” court papers state. Ruggiero’s lawyer, James Frocarro, argued that his client should be out on bail because all of the other alleged mobsters accused in the NBA scheme were allowed out and that they, too, have been accused of having committed serious offenses. “Did I offer too much to secure his release?” Frocarro said. “He has five million reasons to comply.” When pressed by the judge about Ruggiero’s gun-finger move, Frocarro accused the government of purposely putting the cooperating witness in his cell to make Ruggiero mad. “Did they expect him to give him a kiss? He didn’t lay a hand on him!” Frocarro said.
