STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – A Staten Island resident admitted Thursday to trying to fix an NCAA Division I men’s college basketball game, said his lawyer.

Authorities said Benjamin Bifalco, 25, offered a bribe so one team would “intentionally lose by a lot,” allowing its opponent, the favored team, to cover the point spread, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said in court papers.

The scheme was uncovered during a federal probe into organized crime, authorities said.

In December 2018, Bifalco was heard talking with Joseph Amato Jr., a borough resident and purported Colombo crime family associate, on a wiretapped phone call, said prosecutors’ court papers.

Bifalco said he planned to offer players thousands of dollars to throw the game, prosecutors said.

He then tried to persuade Amato to place thousands of dollars on the game; however, Amato demurred, authorities said.

As it turned out, the favored team didn’t cover the spread, so Amato’s bets would not have won, said authorities.

Defense lawyer Vincent J. Martinelli said the player Bifalco approached “did not take the offer.”

“No money was ever passed,” Martinelli said in a phone conversation. “No money was ever bet.”

Authorities have not named the team or player Bifalco tried to bribe.

Bifalco pleaded guilty to attempted sports bribery, said Martinelli.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 16.

Martinelli said sentencing guidelines call for a range of zero to six months behind bars for the crime, which he called “a very low-level felony.”

“We’re hoping for a non-jail sentence,” Martinelli said.

Prosecutors did not say where on Staten Island Bifalco lives. Online public records indicate a South Beach address.

Bifalco worked very briefly for Assemblywoman and congressional candidate Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn), before his arrest last October.

He was hired on Sept. 16 as a director of community affairs and hadn’t received his first paycheck yet, Malliotakis’ spokesman said then.

Malliotakis’ office became aware of the federal investigation on Oct. 3, said the spokesman. That was the same day prosecutors announced the unsealing of the indictment against Bifalco.

“He was active in local politics, planning to apply to law school and was recommended to me by a number of people,” said Malliotakis in a statement to the Advance then. "I am shocked and saddened by this news. I have zero tolerance for criminal activity, and he was dismissed from my staff effective Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019.