LAW SUIT: Detroit Man Ripped Off Unsuspecting Investors For Millions, Boasted Of Mafia Ties

Convicted felon and reputed Detroit mob associate Gino Accettola is accused of heading a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme in suburban Macomb County. The 49-year old Accettola was named as the lead defendant in a civil law suit filed three weeks ago in Macomb County Circuit Court alleging that he cheated close to a dozen investors out of almost four million dollars in fraudulent construction jobs. Sources in law enforcement claim he is being investigated criminally too.

According to the suit, Accettola purported to be a general contractor with big-money construction projects about to launch in Michigan and Florida who was looking for financing but in reality was just trying to fleece people out of their cash – Accettola is accused of accepting loans totaling 4.7 million bucks from 11 individuals or businesses in Metro Detroit over a two-year period (2014-2016), with investors coughing up anywhere between $15,000 and $1,500,000 apiece for stakes that were in essence worth practically nothing. Plaintiffs in the case allege of the near-five million dollars of loans pocketed by Accettola and his 10 co-defendants, only $900,000 was ever recouped.

The law suit alleges Accettola bragged of his mob connections and took some of the stolen dough and bought his girlfriend an engagement ring, among other lavish purchases. When one of the plaintiffs approached Accettola in the winter of 2016 to complain about not getting paid back what he was owed, Accettola allegedly blamed the hold up on his superiors in the Detroit mafia.

Per sources on the street and in law enforcement, Accettola is linked to the Tocco faction of the mob in the Motor City. A multiple-time convicted felon, he did a prison stint in the 1990s.

Accettola’s most recent run-in with the law came three years ago. He pled guilty in Macomb County Circuit Court to a fraud-related offense in 2013 and received probation and a suspended 10-month jail term. The government in Macomb County is currently the focus of an ongoing federal criminal probe which has already resulted in a small trickle of corruption and bribery charges filed against county employees in recent months and is expected to net a drove of additional and more high-profile arrests and indictments in the future, per sources.