Garment businessman Lewis Kasman, the late mobster John Gotti’s confidante and self-proclaimed “adopted son” and FBI mole avoided getting a prison sentence Thursday for lying to the FBI and other crimes, Long Island’s Newsday reported.
U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn on Thursday spared Kasman, 53, a prison sentence for obstruction of justice, lying to the FBI, fraud and racketeering, Newsday reported, saying he committed some of the crimes while he was cooperating with the FBI. He was sentenced to time served and given three years probation.
The paper said the judge acknowledged that Kasman’s cooperation was a big help in battling the Gambino crime family that Gotti headed up.
“At great risk to himself [Kasman] leveraged the substantial trust that he had built within the Gambino family to provide the government with valuable information,” said Garaufis, according to the paper.
“I did enjoy running with the bad guys at that point in my life,” Kasman told Garaufis, the paper reported. “It is a hard lesson learning to live a clean life.”
