Only weeks after his father being sentenced to 22 months in prison, Michael Poli has been sentenced to 31 months in prison due to an illegal gambling and extortion scheme that was run by the Poli men and 4 other mobsters.
Michael Poli, 37, will not begin his sentence until October 27th of this year, while his father, Thomas Poli, 66, will start serving his sentence on September 29th. Anthony DiPietro, Michael Poli’s attorney, attempted to play into the judge’s compassion after sentencing, asking “How will [their family] continue on without the two men they rely on?” He also tried asking the judge for the same sentence as Thomas had received, so that the “family could be reunited” at the same time.
Despite DiPietro’s attempts, Cecilia Cohen: Assistant US Attorney shed some light on the “egregious” acts that Michael has partaken in, including threatening debtors both with words and with a gun at least once. Prosecutors claim that Poli has threatened debtors with violence, going so far as to say, “Do I need to f–king punch you in your f–king face to get my point across? I’ll put a f–king bullet so far into your f–king head.”
Michael Poli was also involved in a different federal racketeering case in 2016. Prosecutors believe that he pled guilty but “lied” to the judge, downplaying his association with La Cosa Nostra so that he would get out of his supervised release earlier. In relation to this case, prosecutors say that Michael has still not learned his lesson. Michael and his father, Thomas, along with 4 other Bronx men were arrested in April of last year for turning a profit for the crime syndicate “through a pattern of racketeering activity,” such as illegal gambling and extortion.
Two of the other defendants, 54-year-old Nicholas Calisi and 48-year-old John Campanella, have also received their sentences with Calisi getting 24 months and Campanella getting 13 months. Thomas Poli was sentenced last month, on July 6th, to 22 months in prison and a $200,000 fine. And most recently, Thomas’s son Michael Poli was officially sentenced yesterday, August 2nd, to 31 months in prison and a $15,000 fine.