{"id":20686,"date":"2025-10-29T02:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/20686\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T02:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:23:13","slug":"gambino-mobster-in-nba-gambling-scandal-denied-bail-over-fears-hed-resort-to-his-witness-tampering-methods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/20686\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambino mobster in NBA gambling scandal denied bail over fears he’d resort to his witness tampering methods"},"content":{"rendered":"

The accused mobster son of a legendary Mafioso named \u201cQuack Quack\u201d was denied bail Tuesday in the sensational case involving NBA-tied rigged card games<\/a> \u2014 over concerns he\u2019d return to his witness-tampering ways.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for\u00a0Angelo<\/a> Ruggiero Jr.<\/a>, 53, had pushed for a $5 million bond insured by his family and friends during the reputed Gambino mobster\u2019s bail hearing in Brooklyn federal court.<\/p>\n

But Judge Joseph Marutollo agreed with prosecutors that Ruggiero\u2019s history foreshadows what he\u2019d do if released: tamper with a witness.<\/p>\n

Ruggiero played on cheating poker teams inside 80 Washington Ave., a luxe Greenwich Village pad, the feds alleged. Donna Dotan<\/p>\n

The ritzy Manhattan townhouse once rented by Kylie Jenner\u2019s baby daddy Travis Scott was later used by Mafia goons and NBA stars to run illegal rigged poker games, according to the feds.
Donna Dotan<\/p>\n

Marutollo noted that Ruggiero, when incarcerated in a past case, had threatened to kill a witness.
\u201cHe made his hand in the shape of a gun and said, \u2018You know how we take care of rats up close and personal,\u201d the judge said of the son of notorious late mobster Angelo Ruggiero Sr., whose motor-mouthed honking earned him the nickname \u201cQuack Quack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruggiero sat glum in a tan prison outfit as Marutollo denied the bail package.<\/p>\n

Soon afterward, co-defendant Curtis Meeks, 41, pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and money-laundering charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meeks, a former boxer who allegedly supplied cheating technology used in rigged card games, received a $250,000 bond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The feds pushed for Meeks to be barred from gambling \u2013 a potential problem for the professional gambler.<\/p>\n

The crooks allegedly used NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups (left), the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and former NBA player Damon Jones, 49, to act as \u201cface cards\u201d to attract high rollers to the rigged big-money games. Obtained by NYPost<\/p>\n

\u201cI play in the World Series of Poker. If [the government] doesn\u2019t want me to play, that\u2019s fine,\u201d Meeks said in court.<\/p>\n

The judge ultimately said Meeks will need to notify pre-trial services about any gambling and travel.<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s latest on the gambling scandal rocking the NBA:<\/p>\n

The back-to-back hearings stemmed from explosive federal indictments last week that exposed alleged Mafia sports gambling and poker-rigging schemes intertwined with NBA players<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ruggiero played on cheating poker teams inside 80 Washington Ave., a luxe Greenwich Village pad, the feds alleged.<\/p>\n

The townhouse was one of two Manhattan locations where high-stakes poker games were held by four of the city\u2019s most powerful crime families, including the Gambinos, the feds alleged.<\/p>\n

The crooks allegedly used NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups<\/a>, 49, the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and former NBA player Damon Jones<\/a>, 49, to act as \u201cface cards\u201d to attract high rollers to the rigged big-money games.<\/p>\n

One purported victim who, along with his poker buddies, was allegedly scammed out of $1 million<\/a> claimed a former NFL player also had acted as the front man during his losing game.<\/p>\n

The feds have said the son of \u201cQuack Quack\u201d not only took his dad\u2019s full Ruggiero name but also his Mafia mantle.<\/p>\n

The elder Ruggiero was a close friend famed Gambino boss John Gotti and ended up an unwitting stool pigeon in the feds\u2019 1980s probe into the mob family when he was caught on wiretaps characteristically blabbing incriminating dirt.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, while together with the witness in their cell, the defendant made his hand into the shape of a gun, pointed it at the witness\u2019s head, and stated, in sum and substance: \u2018you know how we take care of rats, we get up-close and personal,\u2019\u201d court papers state.<\/p>\n

Ruggiero\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid I offer too much to secure his release?\u201d Frocarro said. \u201cHe has five million reasons to comply.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed by the judge about Ruggiero\u2019s gun-finger move, Frocarro accused the government of purposely putting the cooperating witness in his cell to make Ruggiero mad.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid they expect him to give him a kiss? He didn\u2019t lay a hand on him!\u201d Frocarro said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The accused mobster son of a legendary Mafioso named \u201cQuack Quack\u201d was denied bail Tuesday in the sensational…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[303,6238,10378,9,11,10,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-20686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-gambinos","10":"tag-nba-gambling-scandal-2025","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}