You'll notice the Joey fanboys rush to assume this is the case. "Joey's always been in charge!"

First, as I have to keep pointing out to people, there doesn't necessarily need to be an official boss for there to be an acting boss. In other words, a guy can be acting boss without acting for someone else.

Second, the indictment says Ligambi became acting boss following his predecessor, Joey Merlino. In other words, Ligambi replaced Merlino as acting boss once Merlino went to prison. And, incidentally, Merlino himself was indicted as acting boss (not official boss) back in 2000.