Fed Judge Gives Gambino Mobster, Philly Scamster “Joe Mack” LaForte 16 Years For Half-Billion Par Funding Rip-Off Scheme

March 28, 2025 — Reputed 55-year old Gamino mob soldier Joseph (Joe Mack) LaForte was smacked with s 16-year federal-prison term on Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kearney for his role heading a nearly $500,000,000 dollar fraud through his and his little brother and fellow Gambino mob button man, James (Jimmy the Hammer) LaFotre’s Par Funding lending and investment company out of Philadelphia. Originally, the feds placed the profits of the rip-off at $100,000,000, but in the press-release issued by the U.S. Attorneys Office Wednesday morning put the total at 404,000,000.

Last week, Jimmy LaForte, 47, was sentenced to 11 years in the can in the same case in which they both copped guilty pleas back in the fall. Mob Talk Sitdown broke the news of the sentences. Par Funding was located in Old City and allegedly maintained ties to the Philadelphia mafia’s Bruno-Scarfo crime family. The LaForte brothers belong to the Gambino crime family’s Sicilian “18th Avenue” crew.

“Joe Mack” LaForte was ordered by Judge Kearney on Wednesday to forfeit a whopping 120,000,000 in cash and $20,000,000 in assets, including a private plane. He allegedly threatened to blow up a debtor’s house if he didn’t make good on his payments and asked another debtor if he had ever heard the term “cement shoes.” During an SEC inquiry into his lending business, LaForte expressed the intent to physically harm individuals he suspected were cooperating with the financial-sector regulatory body. Joe Mack’s wife, Lisa, the owner of Par Funding on paper, pleaded guilty in the case last spring.

The Sicilian branch of the Gambinos has held the power in the borgata since the late 2000s. Gambino mob administrators were reportedly in South Philly for a meeting with Philly mob leaders in May 2024 to discuss joint business in the area construction trade and the Par Funding case. Prosecutors accused the LaForte brothers of funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars from their sham deals and exorbitant loans at Par Funding to members of the Sicilian Gambino faction.

Descending from a rich gangland bloodline, the LaFortes’ grandfather is deceased Gambino mob capo Joe (The Cat) LaForte, a lieutenant of longtime Gambino mob underboss Neil Dellacroce and known as a huge earner in the crime family for years. “Joe the Cat” owned the property housing the iconic Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy, serving first as Dellacroce’s and then Gambino mob boss John Gotti’s Manhattan headquarters. Philly’s Bruno-Scarfo organization has a history of allowing the Gambinos to do work in its territory dating back decades in exchange for a piece of the action. Per sources, some relatives and associates of the Philly mob were employed at Par Funding and at least a pair of Bruno-Scarfo mob members visited the office occasionally.