$1M BID TO JOIN MAFIA

A longtime Mafia asso ciate — frustrated at being passed over for induction into the mob — offered $1 million to the Gambino crime family if they made him a wiseguy, The Post has learned.

Leonard Minuto Sr., 64, whose gambling and loan-sharking operation has earned millions of dollars for the Gambinos, purportedly went from capo to capo and even went to Arnold Squitieri, the family's acting head, in a bid to get his button.

Despite making what he thought was an offer they couldn't refuse, the mob family did, snubbing him at every turn, according to sources familiar with thousands of hours of secretly recorded government tapes.