Years ago, when he was a favorite of the late mob boss John Gotti, Garment District businessman Lewis Kasman had a friendship with the Gambino crime boss that few people experienced.

"Kasman would carry on like it was some Broadway play with Harvey Fierstein, speaking to Gotti in a way , for anyone else, would incur Gotti's wrath," remembered defense attorney Gerald Shargel, who once met with Gotti at Kasman's zipper company.

Though Kasman, 50 -- Gotti's self-proclaimed "adopted son" -- drifted from the front pages when the mobster died of cancer in 2002, he is now back with a vengeance.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn revealed earlier this week that since 2005, Kasman has been a cooperating witness for the FBI, taping a number of reputed mobsters and associates. Prosecutors intend to use Kasman and some of his evidence in a special hearing Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn aimed at getting a controversial lawyer disqualified from a major mob case.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nymob0327,0,4605978.story