Vincent Martino’s pants were around his ankles and his shirt was rolled over his head when he realized he had to escape the rage of Bonanno soldier John “The Maniac” Ragano, the extortion victim turned witness told a Brooklyn jury.
Martino, 47, gave his second day of testimony Wednesday at the imposing mobster’s Brooklyn Federal Court extortion trial, offering the jurors a window into how the mob collected its debts with implied threats and, in one episode, rage and the promise of violence when mobsters thought he was wearing a wire.
Martino, a Long Island construction company owner swimming in debt, went to the mafia for financial help, including Ragano, who he owed $150,000, he testified.
He’d been making regular weekly payments on the $100,000 interest until September 2021, when he, Ragano, and the entire leadership of the Colombo crime family got arrested in connection with a union shakedown indictment.
Ragano, 62, who also goes by the nickname “Bazoo,” had pleaded guilty to several charges in that case — including previously extorting Martino in regards to the loan.
He was going to prison for 57 months starting July 10, 2023 — but he still wanted the principal of that loan repaid, Martino said.
So Martino went to the FBI and agreed to wear a wire, and after a few “friendly” meetings with an intermediary where he made $1,000 payments, he asked to meet Ragano to end the arrangement.
That meeting happened on July 5, 2023, inside A & G Auto Dismantlers in Ridgewood, Queens where Ragano worked. Jurors heard a recording of the encounter, which Martino described.
Martino first met with a group of FBI agents in a schoolyard a few blocks away, then met Ragano at the used auto parts shop in “dark … dirty” warehouse area.
The conversation got contentious quickly, when Martino accused Ragano of being an informant himself, saying, “Bro, you f–king snitched me” and “I gotta end this thing.”
That immediately set the Bonnano mobster off, who asked him, “Are you trying to get stupid on me?” and “What, are you losing your f–ing mind? I’m going to jail for 57 months!”
He then accused Martino of being a snitch and wanted to check him for a wire, bellowing, “Take off your f–king shit right now, my man. Take off your f–king pants right now!”
Martino described what he did next.
“John and I were arguing and … [he] asked me to get naked. My shorts and my underwear were down my ankles.”
Ragano also demanded his money, screaming, “So if I f–king slap the shit out of you, you’re going to tell on me? … I tried to make this a friendly thing.”
Martino then realized two men were coming up behind him with what he believed were a tire iron and another metal object so he pulled his pants up, headed for the door, ran back to his car and called his FBI handler.
“I was a little shaken up,” he said, describing himself as “anxious, scared.
“I knew at the end of the day that somewhere along the line … someone was coming to collect that money,” he said.
Ragano’s lawyer, Joel Stein, challenged his account of what happened and tried to tear holes in Martino’s credibility, at one point needling him about how he bought sexual favors at a massage parlor for about four years. He also accused Martino of doing some extortion of his own, threatening a man nicknamed “John Next Door” in text messages over money owed to him.
He zeroed in on Martino’s claim that he believed Ragano had ratted him out to the feds regarding a marijuana distribution they tried to start up.
“I still believe that to this day,” Martino said, and when Stein asked, “Even though he’s sitting here in court?” Martino responded, “One hundred percent.”
Stein also accused Martino of lying about why he started borrowing money from the mob — $430,000 in total from four mobsters. Martino testified on Tuesday that he needed to save his failing business after COVID hit, but Stein pointed out he had also hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax debts and legal judgments from years before the pandemic.
“You don’t expect to to pay back any of that, do you?” Stein asked, referring to the mob debts.
“Potentially not,” Martino said.
Stein continued, “It’s all free money for you, isn’t it?” and Martino pushed back. “No, you’re wrong. … I don’t know, sir, who’ll be coming to collect the money.”
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