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Man gets 7 years in mob extortion case

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA | rocco.parascandola@newsday.com

November 14, 2007

A reputed Bonanno crime family soldier from Howard Beach was sentenced to just over 7 years in prison for his role in a mob extortion conspiracy.

Ronald Giallanzo, 37, was given the low end of the sentencing guideline range, or 87 months, after Brooklyn federal judge Raymond Dearie balanced the defendant's recent lung illness with the losses caused by the conspiracy.

Giallanzo faced up to 108 months or 9 years under the guidelines after he plead guilty earlier this year to one count of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of extortion conspiracy involving brokerage firms. The case involved members and associates of the Colombo crime family, said investigators.

"How do we get the wiseguys out of the market? ... The level of victimization is tragic," said Dearie before sentencing Giallanzo.

In a brief statement, Giallanzo apologized to his family for his conduct, which he said hurt people close to him. He was ordered to pay $50,000 restitution. Dearie is allowing him to surrender on Feb. 18, 2008.

Giallanzo was linked by investigators last year to an alleged shakedown of controversial Howard Beach housewife Yvonne Rossetti.

Last November federal prosecutors charged that Rossetti was being squeezed by members of the Bonanno crime family for $100,000 invested with her by a crime family associate. Giallanzo allegedly went to Rossetti's Howard Beach home looking for her in October 2006, but never found her, according to court papers.

Though investigated in the shakedown case, Giallanzo was never charged. Rossetti left Howard Beach with her children late last year after allegations surfaced in state and federal court filings that she had swindled investors, including some of her neighbors and family members, of more than a million dollars in a sham investment program. She has never been charged. Rossetti's husband, Vincent, became a government witness.