That website does not provide a source either. And Basciano giving his blessing might not be the same as appointing. I'm probably a ball breaker right now and I'm not saying you're wrong, but being elected to acting boss is the usual practise. Wasn't Basciano an acting boss himself?
If we would go with Ivyleague's defintion of acting boss, it means that an acting boss loses his title when he goes to jail.
In this article Jerry Capeci states that when Basciano was in jail, the Bonanno family did not take orders from him.
That websites source is the article I provided below it on the NY Dailynews website.
An Acting Boss is appointed by the Boss (eg. Vic Orena via Carmine Persico). For all intents and purposes, after Massino turned Basciano was viewed as the unofficial boss of the family. He appointed (evidenced by wiretaps) Michael Mancuso who was picked up in 2006 and then appointed Montagna that same year. Montagna ran things until April of 2009 when he was deported. There was a ruling panel instituted after that which included Joseph Sammartino, and others until the election of Vinny TV in 2010. Vinny TV was named as the acting boss of the family in all the recent indictments, who might be the official boss you say? I personally think the family probably hasnt formally elected a new boss since Massino turned and Basciano went to the can (there is no proof they have).
That article you provided by Capeci was published in January of 2010, the year the feds say Vinny TV took over as acting boss. This makes sense that the family isnt taking orders anymore from Basciano at that point as evidenced by the quote by the "source" in the article.
I still carry Vinny as the unoffical boss of the family, until noted otherwise in an indictment, etc. The feds were saying as late as 2011 that Basciano was trying to smuggle/communicate with Bonanno members on the outside so it is not inconceivable he could have been giving some orders/blessings to some decisions. Check this out:
"He's under 23-hour lockdown, but former mob boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano still managed to get his hands on porn in federal jail, officials revealed.The feds got a tip that the ex-Bonanno chief was trying to pass messages through another inmate in a legal-research room at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn."In exchange, Basciano would provide the other inmate with contraband items, such as stamps and pornographic and other DVDs," prosecutor Taryn Merkly said in court papers. Investigators searched the room and found a DVD stashed there and "unauthorized magazines" in Basciano's cell, Merkl said."
"But prosecutors have suggested that Basciano might be secretly communicating with the outside world, claiming he seems to speak in code during visits with his son."
