A Stamford man who authorities allege is a Gambino crime family associate has been sentenced to five years in prison for loan sharking and illegally possessing ammunition.

Seventy-nine-year-old Nicola Melia was also fined $50,000 and ordered to forfeit more than $250,000 during his sentencing Monday in federal court in New Haven. He pleaded guilty in September.

Federal prosecutors say Melia made loans to a Fairfield County resident totaling about $155,000 beginning in May 2000. Authorities say the unnamed resident paid nearly $400,000 in interest, including about $250,000 in interest on a $10,000 initial loan.

Melia has two other convictions in the past 11 years. He was sentenced to four months in a halfway house in 2000 for tax fraud and got nearly three years in prison in 2005 for racketeering.