his lifetime, former Mafia boss Joseph Massino was involved in at least one deal involving money and laundering that was perfectly legal - and someone still got victimized.

Today, Massino is a mob rat hiding in the Bureau of Prisons' witness protection program. And among the victims left in the wake of the treacherous ex-boss of the Bonanno crime family is a hardworking small businessman named Gary Lehman.

Eight years ago, Lehman bought G&J Launderette, a legitimate business in a building Massino owned at 60-37 Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood. He forked over $6,979 to Massino as a security deposit for rent and water usage.

Every month, Massino's wife, Josephine, stopped by to pick up the rent check, and Lehman met her husband occasionally when he stopped by an Italian coffee shop next door.

"Regardless of what was printed about him, they were nice people," Lehman, 59, said.

But it all came crashing down for Massino in the summer of 2004 after a federal jury convicted him of racketeering and ordering seven murders. The jury also ordered him to give $10.4 million to the feds, plus his CasaBlanca restaurant on Eliot Ave. and other real estate properties, including the building where the launderette is located.

Last year, the U.S. Marshals Service sold the building, and thus began Lehman's struggle to recover his deposit.

"I don't know if Massino has the money, his wife, or the marshals," he said.

Not one to give up easily, Lehman filed a summons in Queens Small Claims Court, then in Queens Supreme Court and recently in Brooklyn Federal Court.

An assistant U.S. attorney is representing the government, but it has been difficult for Lehman to find a lawyer willing to handle a federal case involving such a paltry sum of money.

Fernando Arias, an attorney in Jackson Heights, is trying to help. Last week, U.S. Magistrate Cheryl Pollack ordered both sides to work out a settlement in 90 days.

Lehman "doesn't have any issue with the Massinos. His only issue is the return of the deposit," Arias told the Daily News.

As for Lehman, he wasn't interested in Massino then and he isn't now.

"I'm a regular guy, and I didn't buy the business to meet him," he said


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