{"slug": "mafia-linked-man-gets-5-years-for-extortion-says-its-not-my-fault-he-has-scary", "title": "Mafia-linked man gets 5 years for extortion, says it’s ‘not my fault’ he has scary reputation", "summary": "Lucchese crime family associate Joseph Cutaia was sentenced to five years in prison for extorting two victims, including stealing their luxury watches. Cutaia told a federal judge that his victims were scared of him because of his reputation, which he claimed was 'not my fault.' Prosecutors said the victims were not friends but targets of his shakedown scheme.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...A Lucchese gangster who sent one of his shakedown victims [an online bio with his mob bonafides](https://www.nydailynews.com/2026/06/15/mafia-thug-sent-extortion-victim-his-online-mob-profile-to-prove-he-meant-business-feds/) told a judge Tuesday that it’s not his fault he has such a scary reputation.\n\nSpeaking at his Brooklyn Federal Court sentencing Tuesday, Joseph Cutaia, 47, insisted that [his victims](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nyed.524707/gov.uscourts.nyed.524707.37.0.pdf) were actually his friends, and that they were scared of him “because of my reputation, I guess, which is not my fault.”\n\nCutaia, who got a five-year prison sentence Tuesday, played up his supposed friendship with his victims, both in the merchant cash advance business — one who he squeezed out of $50,000, the other who he threatened and demanded the expensive watch off his wrist.\n\n“I ruined a friendship with an argument,” Cutaia said of the extortion in a statement to Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Margo Brodie, explaining that when he got out of prison after serving 15 years for robbery, “People were promising me stuff.”\n\nBut Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Lash pointed out that the victims didn’t know him prior to the extortion.\n\nThe man he muscled out of $50,000, identified as John Doe #1, knew of Cutaia from growing up in the same neighborhood, but had never spoken to him — until Cutaia called him from a contraband phone in August 2023, shortly before his release from prison to start his extortion efforts.\n\n“John Doe #1 was in no stretch of the imagination a friend of the defendant. He was purely his victim,” she said.\n\nCutaia, [grandson of the late Lucchese capo Domenico Cutaia](https://www.nydailynews.com/2009/12/23/grandson-of-luchese-crime-capo-joseph-cutaia-faces-rap-in-robbery-try/), sent his bio from a “Mob Facts” web page to John Doe #1 in Dec. 2023, shortly after his release from prison in a home invasion robbery case.\n\n“Lucchese Crime family Associate Joseph Cutaia (T-L) Son of Soldier Salvatore (B-R) & Grandson of deceased Various Crew CAPO Domenico (B-L) has been released from Prison. Speculated to be a future force to be reckoned with,” the bio reads, [according to the feds.](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nyed.524707/gov.uscourts.nyed.524707.37.0.pdf)\n\nThat started a months-long extortion effort, with Cutaia telling John Doe #1 in an exchange of messages, “I don’t care who’s listening [I’m] going to put you under that building.”\n\nHis second victim, John Doe #2, co-owned a merchant cash advance business. In April 2024, Cutaia showed up with a gun, threatening to “spray the place” and yelling that he was owed $100,000.\n\nHe then demanded the victim and a second man give him the watches off their wrists, a Rolex Daytona with a gold face and black leather wristband and a Patek Philippe Nautilus. After his arrest in June 2024, Cutaia asked his wife to get rid of the Rolex, and to disable his cell phone.\n\nCutaia tried to downplay the incident in his statement to the judge, nearly scorching his plea agreement in the process.\n\n“Things got out of hand,” he said, “I acted off emotion, and I acted off aggression, and I was wrong for that… And I asked them for their watches, I didn’t demand them.”\n\nThat led Brodie to point out that one of the charges Cutaia pleaded guilty to involved stealing the watches and taking them across state lines, and his remarks contradicted that admission.\n\nHis lawyer, Gary Cutler, did quick damage control, insisting that Cutaia admitted that he stole the watches.\n\n“They gave them to me because I guess they were afraid of me,” Cutaia said. “Yes, your honor, I threatened them.”\n\nBrodie told Cutaia that he appeared to lack remorse, and that his actions flew in the face of family members’ letters describing him as good-hearted.\n\n“Extorting money and stealing from others, even though that you consider to be your friends, undermines the argument that you have a genuine good heart,” she said. “You seem to be suggesting that it’s OK to extort your friends.”\n\nAs part of his sentence, Cutaia must forfeit $210,000 and pay restitution to his victims, $50,000 to John Doe #1 and $40,000 to John Doe #2.\n\nHe also could face an additional two years behind bars when he’s sentenced by a separate judge on Friday for violating his supervised release in his robbery case.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/mafia-linked-man-gets-5-years-for-extortion-says-its-not-my-fault-he-has-scary", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/24/mafia-goon-sentenced-extortion/", "published_at": "2026-06-24 12:35:42+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-24 13:14:06.024271+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Joseph Cutaia", "Lucchese crime family", "Margo Brodie", "Devon Lash", "Gary Cutler", "Rolex", "Patek Philippe"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/mafia-linked-man-gets-5-years-for-extortion-says-its-not-my-fault-he-has-scary", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/mafia-linked-man-gets-5-years-for-extortion-says-its-not-my-fault-he-has-scary.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/mafia-linked-man-gets-5-years-for-extortion-says-its-not-my-fault-he-has-scary.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/mafia-linked-man-gets-5-years-for-extortion-says-its-not-my-fault-he-has-scary.jsonld"}}