United States v. Ragano

── United States v. Ragano ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Date: April 09, 2026 Category: General 25-708-cr United States v. Ragano UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the 9th day of April, two thousand twenty-six. PRESENT: JOSÉ A. CABRANES, JOSEPH F. BIANCO, WILLIAM J. NARDINI, Circuit Judges. _____________________________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. 25-708-cr JOHN RAGANO, Defendant-Appellant. _____________________________________ FOR APPELLEE: DEVON LASH (David C. James, Andrew Reich, on the brief), Assistant United States Attorneys, for Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, New York.  FOR DEFENDANT-APPELLANT: JOEL M. STEIN, Brooklyn, New York. Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Hector Gonzalez, Judge). UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the judgment of the district court, entered on March 20, 2025, is AFFIRMED. Defendant-Appellant John Ragano appeals from a judgment of conviction entered by the district court, following a jury trial at which Ragano was found guilty of extortionate collection of credit, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 894(a)(1) and 2. 1 The conviction related to a loan of $150,000 that Ragano made to Vincent Martino in 2020, requiring 1.5 percent interest to be paid per week. In 2021, Martino paid Ragano more than $50,000 in interest on the loan, with no portion of those payments reducing the $150,000 principal of the loan. In November 2022, following his arrest by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Ragano pled guilty to, inter alia, conspiracy to commit extortionate collection of credit in connection with his loan to Martino. See United States v. Alimena, No. 21-cr-466 (E.D.N.Y.). In April 2023, Ragano was sentenced principally to 57 months’ imprisonment in the Alimena case and self-surrendered for his sentence in July 2023. The indictment in the instant case alleged that, during the Alimena case, Ragano continued to use extortionate means to collect the debt owed to him by Martino. Following the jury’s guilty verdict on that charge, Ragano was sentenced principally to 37 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release. On appeal, Ragano argues that his conviction should be overturned because: (1) the trial 1 Ragano was acquitted of the other charges in the indictment, namely, extortionate collection of credit conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 894(a)(1), harassment of a witness, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(d)(2) and 2, and