Pat Dollard | Young Americans

NY Post:

April 5, 2008 — As his “adopted dad” John Gotti lay dying of cancer in prison, Mafia turncoat Lewis Kasman was secretly spilling his guts to the feds, bombshell FBI reports show.

Kasman was already squealing as early as 1997, as Gotti was serving a life sentence in Marion, Ill, for racketeering.

Kasman gave the feds an inside view on how the top Mafioso ran his crime family from behind bars and later shifted power to his kin.

Kasman also told the feds Gotti controlled “promotions in the family, resolutions of family beefs and the dispositions of monies,” according to the reports, which date to 1997.

Kasman told how Gotti used trusted lawyers to smuggle his orders in and out of prison, passing written and sometimes oral messages as his son John “Junior” Gotti, then the acting boss, waited dutifully just outside the prison.

When Gotti was stricken with cancer and moved to a medical prison facility in Springfield, Mo., Kasman publicly railed against the government for the medical treatment Gotti received.

Meanwhile, the self-described adopted son secretly told the feds of Gotti’s plans to pass the reins of the Gambino crime family.

Kasman was so entrenched with the Gottis that he held up to $11 million of their money at a time and dished out cash for their expenses, lawyers and emergencies.
When Gotti died, Kasman was entrusted to give the eulogy at his funeral and read aloud letters and poems written by the clan.

By 2005, the betrayal shot into high gear as Kasman donned a wire to record conversations with Gotti’s jailed brother Peter, who had become boss, as well as with the late don’s children Peter and Victoria, and numerous powerful wiseguys.

Kasman told the feds he’d paid hundreds of thousands in cash to Gotti lawyers, including Gerald Shargel and Joseph Corozzo, who represented Gotti brothers Peter and Richard in 2002.

In a jaw-dropping move, Kasman even wore a wire inside Manhattan federal court in 2005 during the first of three trials for “Junior” Gotti in a failed attempt to snare defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman.

He asked Lichtman to accompany him to a “nearby establishment” and offered him $11,500 in off-the-books cash for attorney fees. But Lichtman didn’t bite, taking only $9,500, which is under the legal limit.

Asked about the attempted set-up yesterday, Lichtman said, “I think it’s pitiful that they tried to entrap me in the middle of a trial.”

That same year, Kasman also tried the trick on attorney Joseph Bondy, who represented Peter Gotti in 2005 and initially agreed to take $10,000 cash without reporting it if he could get the remaining $1,500 balance by check, according to an FBI report.

When Kasman refused, Bondy settled for just the $10,000 cash.

Kasman quietly pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction of justice, making false statements and wire fraud last September under a cooperation agreement with the feds.