SYOSSET, NY — A Syosset man has been convicted in federal court of plotting extortion and racketeering crimes with members and associates of the Genovese crime family of La Cosa Nostra, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Jurors found Frank Giovinco, 52, guilty of acts involving extortion, honest services fraud and unlawful kickback payments related to the family's control of two local labor union chapters, authorities said. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said Giovinco was a member of the Genovese crime family who "instilled fear in victims and propagated kickback schemes" to strengthen the family's stranglehold over two labor unions.

La Cosa Nostra, also known as the "Mob" or the "Mafia," operates through entities known as "families," federal prosecutors said. The largest of the families operating in the New York City area is the Genovese crime family, which inserted Giovinco in the early 1990s into a scheme to control the waste-carting industry, authorities said. In recent years and continuing until 2017, Giovinco plotted with other members and associates of the family to commit varying crimes, prosecutors said. Giovinco's activity centered on two local chapters of a labor union. He participated in schemes designed to manipulate and siphon money from the unions to benefit the family, authorities said.