Merlino is a good example now of how the FBI won't leave certain people alone. They tend to be more persistent with the more ostentatious types. The more they flaunt it, the more it pisses the FBI off.

And, from their perspective, you can see why. Their job is to take these people down. Often they do it their own way and with little regard for rules and the law, but at the heart of it they want the people their chasing locked up for life. If you are working for the FBI and see Gotti beating two trials and then walking around with $2000 dollar suits, you're just going to go after him harder. You see him nicknamed the Teflon Don and plastered all over the papers, seemingly looking like a cat with 9 lives.

Gotti was lucky he had a few years in the can by all accounts. I doubt he would have lasted much longer on the streets.