Joe Cinque

Joseph V. Cinque is an American felon and mobster. He was CEO and president of the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences (AAHS).

Names Cinque has been known by the nicknames "the Preppy Don" and "Joey No Socks". In an April 1995 profile in New York magazine, Cinque was described as a "small-time mobster, a scam artist, and an art fence."

Career In 1980, Cinque was shot three times and left for dead. While Cinque described the incident as a robbery, officials indicated it was likely an attempted contract killing by the mafia.

Stolen artworks Cinque was arrested in 1989 on felony charges when stolen art was found in his apartment. After police used a battering ram to gain access to his home, they found 40 works of art, including pieces by Joan Miró and Frederic Remington. In a memoir, New York plastic surgeon Richard Lawrence Dombroff related that Cinque said he had purchased stolen jewelry and stayed out of prison because he worked as an informant for the government.

Businesses In partnership with Toby Beavers, Michael Ault, and Gary Pryor, Cinque ran the Surf Club and the Crane Club in New York. He said that he was Beavers' insurance policy against "trouble with the mob" at the Surf Club and the Zulu Lounge. The academy is run from Cinque's Central Park South apartment in Manhattan and has been cited for extensive connections to the friends and family of Donald Trump. Cinque's former girlfriend, Despina Zahariades, also alleged domestic abuse, saying that he beat her and took her for $60,000.

At a 2016 New Year's Eve celebration, Cinque awarded president-elect Donald Trump with a “a One-of-a-Kind bronze Eagle award” from the AAHS, where Trump had previously been a trustee.

Cinque appeared alongside Trump at a New Year's Eve party on January 3, 2017.