A hotheaded Gambino goon who flipped a table at a swanky Midtown restaurant and smashed a bottle into a federal witness’s nose admitted Wednesday to the attack, and to taking part in an extortion racket targeting the city’s garbage and demolition industries.
James (Jimmy) LaForte, 49, is the 10th and final defendant to plead guilty in the scheme, which saw Gambino mobsters fantasizing about acting like samurai warriors and celebrating with champagne as they used violence and arson to extort their victims.
LaForte, a made man and Gambino soldier, is already serving more than 11 years in Pennsylvania for acting as his brother Joseph’s enforcer in a $400 million fraud scheme, and for beating up an attorney appointed by the courts to investigate the scam. His brother was sentenced to 15 and a half years in March 2025.
LaForte now faces roughly eight to 10 more years behind bars, based on federal sentencing guidelines, after pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy, extortion, witness retaliation and other crimes in Brooklyn Federal Court. The court has not yet set a sentencing date.
LaForte’s role in the plot included a bloody scene at Sei Less, at W. 38th St. and Seventh Ave., the same Midtown restaurant that served as the backdrop for the Nov. 16 shooting of New York Jets cornerback Kris Boyd.
The posh Asian fusion “speakeasy” is popular with celebrities, including athletes, rappers and former Mayor Adams.
On Feb. 17, 2021, LaForte and another Gambino associate, Vincent “Vinny Slick” Minsquero, approached a man eating at Sei Less with his girlfriend and pals and accused him of being a “rat,” according to the feds.
LaForte hit the man in the face with a bottle, bloodying his nose, and the Gambino duo flipped the table, sending drinks and broken glass flying, according to court filings.
LaForte attacked the man because he was a witness at an official proceeding, and because he gave law enforcement agents information about a federal crime, according to prosecutors.
LaForte also extorted a man who borrowed $50,000 from a mobbed-up loan shark, making the man go into business with him to run an underground poker game and a craps game. When the man asked for his share of the craps proceeds, LaForte responded with screaming and violence, decking the man in the face and giving him a black eye, according to court filings.
LaForte’s criminal past spans two decades and includes prison sentences for fraud, extortion and illegal gambling.
The overall extortion scheme was run by reputed Gambino capo Joseph “Joe Brooklyn” Lanni, who was recently indicted in connection with a separate sprawling plot to use NBA stars to lure big-money poker players to rigged underground card games.
Lanni was sitting nearby at Sei Less when LaForte wrecked the witness’s table.
All 10 suspects indicted in the extortion racket have pleaded guilty since their 2023 indictment. They all await sentencing.
“The prosecution of these members and associates of the Gambino organized crime family has dealt a significant blow to that violent criminal enterprise,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. said Wednesday. “Their efforts to take over and infiltrate legitimate businesses by means of intimidation threatened hardworking New Yorkers and terrorized their victims.”
