Prison officer to serve 5 years

He helped inmate run fraud scam out of cell

The tables have turned on a corrections officer who landed a five-year prison sentence Wednesday for helping notorious inmate Jimmy Sabatino run a $10 million fraud from his cell.

Michael Mazar, 39, of Hollywood, was sentenced in federal court after pleading guilty in March to fraud conspiracy for his role in helping Sabatino at the Federal Detention Center in Miami.

Mazar is expected to surrender July 31 to begin serving his sentence at an undetermined prison. It would have to be one he is not familiar with from his time as a prison officer, authorities said. After serving his sentence, Mazar will be under three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke ordered Mazar to pay $8.9 million in restitution.

Court records show that Mazar smuggled cellphones for Sabatino, who used the phones to contact luxury retail and jewelry designers and conned them into loaning their goods to be promoted in music videos and film productions set in Miami. Duped designer brands included Van Cleef & Arpels jewelers, Audemars Piguet watches, Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik.

Sabatino, who is associated with the Gambino organized crime family, posed as an employee of Sony Music Entertainment and RocNation and even signed documents promising to return the retail items. Instead, Sabatino instructed co-conspirators who were not jailed to sell the items for profit. Sabatino was the mastermind behind the fraud and got help from Mafia members, another inmate and others like Mazar.

The judge said Mazar abused his position at the prison and helped Sabatino pull off the massive scam while incarcerated.

“I can’t imagine a situation where we, as the public, don’t look at this as a position of trust,” Cooke told Mazar’s defense attorney, Greg Chenillo. “Without your client’s cooperation and use of his knowledge of the prison system, this crime could certainly not have occurred.”

Chenillo said “unfortunately, [Mazar] was caught up in this web of fraud by Mr. Sabatino.” Mazar served 16 years in the U.S. Army and had been a good employee until his “lapse of judgment,” he said.

“He felt threatened by Mr. Sabatino. He didn’t feel he could get out of Mr. Sabatino’s grasp,” Chenillo said.

Although Mazar surrendered to authorities and has been cooperating with the investigation, federal prosecutor Christopher Browne said the former prison officer was motivated by “good, old-fashioned greed.”

According to court records, Mazar used fraud proceeds to buy Versace sunglasses, headphones and fast food, and agreed to store $90,000 in his home, along with jewelry and other retail