Buffalo, NY (WBEN) A retired DEA agent and a strip club owner are charged with bribery among other charges according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday.
Prosecutors say 56 year old Joseph Bongiovanni and 53 year old Peter Gerace, Jr. are charged with with conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Bongiovanni is also charged with accepting a bribe as a public official, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to an agency of the United States. Gerace is also charged with paying a bribe to a public official, maintaining a drug involved premises, conspiring to commit sex trafficking. These charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.
“While law enforcement officers take an oath to protect and serve, the expectation is that they will protect and serve the law and the public and not those engaged in drug dealing, sex trafficking, and other crimes,” stated United States Attorney J.P. Kennedy. “As alleged in the indictment, defendant Bongiovanni aided defendant Gerace, and others, by using his badge to shield criminal activities—including not only crimes committed by defendant Gerace but crimes committed at his place of business—from law enforcement scrutiny.”
Prosecutor say between 2005 and August 2019, Bongiovanni conspired with Peter Gerace, Michael Masecchia and others, to defraud the Drug Enforcement Administration by not investigating his friends and associates and used his position as a DEA apecial agent to shield his friends and associates, and others, who he believed were connected to or associated with organized crime, from criminal investigations. Among those individuals were defendant Gerace, owner and operator of Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club. Prosecutors say Gerace paid Bongiovanni in exchange for trying to dissuade other members of law enforcement from conducting investigations. Bongiovanni is also accused of providing information about federal investigations, and those cooperating or suspected to be cooperating with law enforcement, to enable his co-conspirators, friends, and associates to continue their drug trafficking activities without disruption by law enforcement. Investigators add Bongiovanni also regularly used his position to help others get out of trouble with other law enforcement. Bongiovanni, while regularly providing briefings to Gerace, Masecchia and others, also falsely denied to other DEA special agents the existence and extent of connections between himself and these other individuals. It is believed that Bongiovanni received bribes totaling approximately at least $250,000, between 2009 and 2017.
Bongiovanni is also accused of using, distributing, and observing others possess, use, and distribute, cocaine. Prosecutors add on February 1, 2019, his last day on the job, Bongiovanni wiped his DEA issued phone, deleting all data.
Prosecutors say regarding Gerace, specifically. Bongiovanni took bribes from Gerace to use his post to dissuade law enforcement from investigating Gerace and Pharaoh’s and falsely represented Gerace was a source of information about ongoing drug trafficking activity. Between 2013 and 2016, investigators say in November 2009, Bongiovanni contacted the United States Probation Office in an effort to intercede on behalf of Gerace, who was facing potential sanctions for violating the terms and conditions of his federal supervised release.
They add Bongiovanni falsified or failed to document DEA reports regarding Gerace, and in response to a telephone call from Gerace after a stripper overdosed on drugs at Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club, prosecutors say Bongiovanni advised Gerace to “get her out” of the club. They say several times, female dancers employed at Pharaoh’s overdosed after ingesting controlled substances.
Prosecutors add at various times between 2006, and February 1, 2019, Gerace possessed and sold cocaine, and between 2009, and February 2019, and later, Gerace knowingly maintained Pharaoh’s Gentlemen's Club to facilitate prostitution; provide drugs and money to Pharaoh’s employees in exchange for sex with Gerace and others; and for use and distribution of controlled substances, including cocaine, crack cocaine base, Adderall, marijuana and heroin.
Investigators say Bongiovanni regularly made false and misleading statements in DEA reports he prepared relating to the status of a drug trafficking investigations. This was often done to close a DEA file and investigation into a drug trafficking organization and shield co-conspirators, friends and associates from arrest and prosecution. In addition, Bongiovanni is accused of making false statements to the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, regarding defendant Gerace.
Michael Masecchia previously pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute marijuana, and possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes and is awaiting sentencing. Masecchia was involved in the sale of marijuana in the Buffalo and its surrounding suburbs. He also admitted that he received sensitive law enforcement information from defendant Bongiovanni.
Defendants Bongiovanni and Gerace were arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael J. Roemer and were released on conditions.