Extortion Victim of Bonanno Gangster John ‘The Maniac’ Ragano Says COVID Forced Him to Borrow Money from the Mafia

A Long Island construction company owner said he fell deeply into debt to the mob and Bonnano soldier John “The Maniac” Ragano as the COVID pandemic all but killed his business.

Vincent Martino, 47, a Mafia associate and occasional marijuana distributor, described the circumstances that brought him into Ragano’s orbit — a controversial relationship that the FBI says ended when the hulking, dashing mobster forced him to strip naked to to prove he wasn’t wearing a listening device.

Ragano, 62, is on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court on racketeering and other charges for forcing Martino to continue paying his debt even after Ragano was sentenced to five years in prison, including for extorting Martino over that same loan.

Cash payments made by Martino to Ragano through Koslosky. (Government document)

“On July 5, 2023, the defendant, John Ragano, forced a man who owed him money (Martino) to undress in a garage in Queens and threatened to scare the hell out of him,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney USA Andrew Reich. in his opening argument Tuesday. “What he didn’t know and couldn’t have known is that Martino still managed to record the whole thing.”

Martino’s testimony, which began Tuesday afternoon, does not yet address the garage episode, or where he hid the recording device. He will remain on the stand on Wednesday.

Ragano, who also goes by the nickname ‘Bazoo’, and Martino were co-defendants in an indictment against the union that led to the conviction of the entire leadership of the Colombo crime family. Martino was accused of getting into the marijuana business with Ragano and others.

His business was already struggling, and in 2020 “basically the whole country shut down,” he said. Although he got some COVID relief funds, he needed more, and he couldn’t find a bank that would lend him money, he said.

“I went to the street loans,” he said.

Martino, who had ties to the mafia, said he knew Ragano from some mafia parties.

He first borrowed $25,000 from a Colombo crime family gangster and then another $100,000 from Michael Uvino, a former Colombo soldier, he said. His debts continued to “snowball,” he said, so he borrowed $150,000 from Ragano, with the understanding that his weekly payments of $2,250 were only to cover the interest.

Informant Andrew Koslosky – a classical tenor and theater performer who now sings for the FBI – testified that he acted as a go-between, withdrawing weekly payments from Martino.

Ragano wanted the businessman to know that he would slap Martino if he fell behind, so Koslosky warned him to keep paying.

“John was known to everyone as someone who was intimidating,” says Koslosky, 66. “He wasn’t someone to be fooled with…. When he put his fist on the desk, the whole room shook.”

As for why Koslosky became a traitor, the church singer explained: “For two reasons. I didn’t want to go to jail, and I didn’t want to go to hell.”

John “Bazoo” Ragano, a soldier from the Bonanno crime family with a criminal history spanning more than two decades, is pictured in Manhattan in 2014. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News)

Martino testified that he made regular payments until the September 2021 arrest that led to his and Ragano’s arrest.

Ragano was ultimately convicted in the charges against the union – part of which included the loan to Martino – and began his five-year prison sentence on July 10, 2023.

But despite that arrest and the threatened sentence, he still pressured Martino to continue paying his debt, unaware that Martino had gone to the FBI and started recording their interactions, the FBI allege.

At each court conference, Ragano approached Martino and asked him about the money, Martino said.

He told Martino to contact an employee, Simone Barca, who would collect on his behalf, but Martino avoided Barca’s calls for fear of violating the terms of his bail, he testified.

When Ragano left a voicemail on Martino’s phone wishing him a Happy New Year, Martino realized it was time to call the FBI, he said. From there, he agreed to wear a wire and began calling Barca, arranging phone calls and meetings for the FBI to record, he said.

Ragano’s attorney, Ken Womble, said prosecutors provided only part of the picture. “Yes, John Ragano was in the mafia. We admit that. You can judge him morally on that. Don’t blame him,’ he said.

Womble said Ragano was simply trying to get a debt repaid, and that he was not threatening Martino.

“Asking to repay a loan is not a crime at all,” he said. ‘Folks, the call comes from within. This is a case about money among gangsters. That’s the whole story of this case.”