Michael Franzese plays Mafia II game

[Angelo Santino]

Things Franzese has just started saying recently...

1. Junior approached him about being underboss.
2. Chin asked him if he wanted to join the Genovese Family
3. He knows Hoffa’s killer, who he says is alive and in prison. He says he has tapes to back it up.

And as far as the gas scam, his numbers are all over the place. I’ve seen interviews where he said they were doing $6M-$7M per week. Other times he’s said $9M-$10M. I will say he has been consistent in saying that he himself usually kept around $2M from the gas scam after they whacked it up.

The guy made millions as a Capo in the Colombo Family. His “dad” is Sonny Franzese. That’s a plenty interesting story. All the extras he likes to throw in there make him lose credibility.

Agreed.

Re. the Gas Scam, I'd be able to believe he was seeing tens of thousands a week but 2 million? I'd buy he made that for the duration of the scam but weekly? I wasn't there so...

Despite it all, I found his candid discussion while playing the game to be interesting, more so than his documentary appearances.

Now if I can just find Nicky Crow Caramandi, I'd send him a fucking xBox and pay him 500 to record himself playing GTA.

[Amershire_Ed]

Things Franzese has just started saying recently...

1. Junior approached him about being underboss.
2. Chin asked him if he wanted to join the Genovese Family
3. He knows Hoffa’s killer, who he says is alive and in prison. He says he has tapes to back it up.

And as far as the gas scam, his numbers are all over the place. I’ve seen interviews where he said they were doing $6M-$7M per week. Other times he’s said $9M-$10M. I will say he has been consistent in saying that he himself usually kept around $2M from the gas scam after they whacked it up.

The guy made millions as a Capo in the Colombo Family. His “dad” is Sonny Franzese. That’s a plenty interesting story. All the extras he likes to throw in there make him lose credibility.

Agreed.

Despite it all, I found his candid discussion while playing the game to be interesting, more so than his documentary appearances.

Now if I can just find Nicky Crow Caramandi, I'd send him a fucking xBox and pay him 500 to record himself playing GTA.

LOL.

I think part of the deal with Franzese is nearly everyone he was around is either dead or spending the rest of their life in prison. There’s no one to call him on his BS. He says in every interview he’s the only one that’s still alive that made that Newsweek Top 50 Richest Mob Bosses issue. And I think after he told that “I’m the only one on that list that’s still alive” story enough, finally one day he was like “wait, I **am** the only one still alive. I can say anything I want!”. And so he started sliding some whoppers in there to beef up his story.

[Angelo Santino]

Things Franzese has just started saying recently...

1. Junior approached him about being underboss.
2. Chin asked him if he wanted to join the Genovese Family
3. He knows Hoffa’s killer, who he says is alive and in prison. He says he has tapes to back it up.

And as far as the gas scam, his numbers are all over the place. I’ve seen interviews where he said they were doing $6M-$7M per week. Other times he’s said $9M-$10M. I will say he has been consistent in saying that he himself usually kept around $2M from the gas scam after they whacked it up.

The guy made millions as a Capo in the Colombo Family. His “dad” is Sonny Franzese. That’s a plenty interesting story. All the extras he likes to throw in there make him lose credibility.

Agreed.

Despite it all, I found his candid discussion while playing the game to be interesting, more so than his documentary appearances.

Now if I can just find Nicky Crow Caramandi, I'd send him a fucking xBox and pay him 500 to record himself playing GTA.

LOL.

I think part of the deal with Franzese is nearly everyone he was around is either dead or spending the rest of their life in prison. There’s no one to call him on his BS. He says in every interview he’s the only one that’s still alive that made that Newsweek Top 50 Richest Mob Bosses issue. And I think after he told that “I’m the only one on that list that’s still alive” story enough, finally one day he was like “wait, I **am** the only one still alive. I can say anything I want!”. And so he started sliding some whoppers in there to beef up his story.

Kenji Gallo was around Sonny enough to know that he was still in touch with Michael. This was in... 2006? No later than 2008 when the narrative shifted from "information" to "leaving" the mob which "may" have created some enemies. Around the same time MF said in an interview that he is careful when traveling to NYC and that there was once a warning from the FBI that someone was in LA looking for him. Kenji said about it: "It's total bullshit. It's not like people think it is. There's plenty of guys that flip and remain in contact with their relatives. They know Sonny talks to his kids but it's not something that gets mentioned." Something like that.

[moneyman]

I think Gohn mentioned that he gave up info on Andy Russo.

Highly questionable information that hasn’t been corroborated. Franzese claimed that Andrew Russo fixed a boxing fight and, indeed, the FBI surveilled Russo and his mobbed up cronies watching the match in VIP seats. But, as Bert pointed out, there havent been any real allegations that the fighter in question is mobbed up (I can’t remember his name because I don’t follow boxing - Vito Antuo-something), and no sports-fixing charges were ever brought to Russo.

But yes, Franzese did give up “background information” on dozens, if not more, mobsters. This is not some outlandish conspiracy theory. Information that he told the government is referenced in news articles from around the time he first flipped and rebranded himself in the 1990s, and Franzese has pages and pages of “incriminating” information in his book, where he namedrops captains and loan sharks, etc.

He 100% testified again Norby Walters correct? I suppose Walters is not a made guy, so Franzese saying he never testified against "members" is technically true I guess. I'm curious who else he testified against.

[Lupara]

Things Franzese has just started saying recently...

1. Junior approached him about being underboss.
2. Chin asked him if he wanted to join the Genovese Family
3. He knows Hoffa’s killer, who he says is alive and in prison. He says he has tapes to back it up.

And as far as the gas scam, his numbers are all over the place. I’ve seen interviews where he said they were doing $6M-$7M per week. Other times he’s said $9M-$10M. I will say he has been consistent in saying that he himself usually kept around $2M from the gas scam after they whacked it up.

The guy made millions as a Capo in the Colombo Family. His “dad” is Sonny Franzese. That’s a plenty interesting story. All the extras he likes to throw in there make him lose credibility.

Agreed.

Re. the Gas Scam, I'd be able to believe he was seeing tens of thousands a week but 2 million? I'd buy he made that for the duration of the scam but weekly? I wasn't there so...

Despite it all, I found his candid discussion while playing the game to be interesting, more so than his documentary appearances.

Now if I can just find Nicky Crow Caramandi, I'd send him a fucking xBox and pay him 500 to record himself playing GTA.

If it's true that he had a yacht, a private airplane and mansions in Miami and Los Angeles then he certainly made much more than 2 million, and that gas scam was his bread and butter and fame and fortune.

What are the average estimates this scam produced according to people in the know who aren't Michael Franzese?

[Grouchy Sinatra]

I think part of the deal with Franzese is nearly everyone he was around is either dead or spending the rest of their life in prison. There’s no one to call him on his BS. He says in every interview he’s the only one that’s still alive that made that Newsweek Top 50 Richest Mob Bosses issue. And I think after he told that “I’m the only one on that list that’s still alive” story enough, finally one day he was like “wait, I **am** the only one still alive. I can say anything I want!”. And so he started sliding some whoppers in there to beef up his story.

This. And this is what has Gianni Russo out there telling everyone he was basically the go between for every boss in the country. Everyone's dead. If he'd made these claims 30 years ago he would have met the same fate as Carlo Rizzi.

[Angelo Santino]

Things Franzese has just started saying recently...

1. Junior approached him about being underboss.
2. Chin asked him if he wanted to join the Genovese Family
3. He knows Hoffa’s killer, who he says is alive and in prison. He says he has tapes to back it up.

And as far as the gas scam, his numbers are all over the place. I’ve seen interviews where he said they were doing $6M-$7M per week. Other times he’s said $9M-$10M. I will say he has been consistent in saying that he himself usually kept around $2M from the gas scam after they whacked it up.

The guy made millions as a Capo in the Colombo Family. His “dad” is Sonny Franzese. That’s a plenty interesting story. All the extras he likes to throw in there make him lose credibility.

Agreed.

Re. the Gas Scam, I'd be able to believe he was seeing tens of thousands a week but 2 million? I'd buy he made that for the duration of the scam but weekly? I wasn't there so...

Despite it all, I found his candid discussion while playing the game to be interesting, more so than his documentary appearances.

Now if I can just find Nicky Crow Caramandi, I'd send him a fucking xBox and pay him 500 to record himself playing GTA.

If it's true that he had a yacht, a private airplane and mansions in Miami and Los Angeles then he certainly made much more than 2 million, and that gas scam was his bread and butter and fame and fortune.

What are the average estimates this scam produced according to people in the know who aren't Michael Franzese?

If it's true. Note if he says "I had access to __" which is different than outright owning. Was he able to justify that income/lifestyle on a tax return? By the 1970's the FBI relied on forensic accounting to trip up guys when informants weren't there to be utilized. They would follow guys around and just keep tabs on what they paid for, add it up and ask people to justify the income and when they couldn't were faced with tax evasion. Happened with Dellacroce.. 1980's? If MF was doing all of that, it was either short lived or he was Merlino'in it by using connections for people to lease him shit such as cars, condos etc.

I have no doubt that he was riding high, likely earning more than 80% of NY's wiseguys were. He was also probably 'smart' for that world. But 2 million a week? That's 5 million today and I doubt he was deposting that into a bank account so where was he stashing the money? Had he spent it at such a rate that would have garnered FBI attention within months.

[Lupara]

Things Franzese has just started saying recently...

1. Junior approached him about being underboss.
2. Chin asked him if he wanted to join the Genovese Family
3. He knows Hoffa’s killer, who he says is alive and in prison. He says he has tapes to back it up.

And as far as the gas scam, his numbers are all over the place. I’ve seen interviews where he said they were doing $6M-$7M per week. Other times he’s said $9M-$10M. I will say he has been consistent in saying that he himself usually kept around $2M from the gas scam after they whacked it up.

The guy made millions as a Capo in the Colombo Family. His “dad” is Sonny Franzese. That’s a plenty interesting story. All the extras he likes to throw in there make him lose credibility.

Agreed.

Re. the Gas Scam, I'd be able to believe he was seeing tens of thousands a week but 2 million? I'd buy he made that for the duration of the scam but weekly? I wasn't there so...

Despite it all, I found his candid discussion while playing the game to be interesting, more so than his documentary appearances.

Now if I can just find Nicky Crow Caramandi, I'd send him a fucking xBox and pay him 500 to record himself playing GTA.

If it's true that he had a yacht, a private airplane and mansions in Miami and Los Angeles then he certainly made much more than 2 million, and that gas scam was his bread and butter and fame and fortune.

What are the average estimates this scam produced according to people in the know who aren't Michael Franzese?

If it's true. Note if he says "I had access to __" which is different than outright owning. Was he able to justify that income/lifestyle on a tax return? By the 1970's the FBI relied on forensic accounting to trip up guys when informants weren't there to be utilized.

He specifically says he owned it. You make a fair point, but was the gas scam not a legitimate enterprise until it wasn't? Also, he owned legitimate businesses that could justify some of his income. He certainly wouldn't be the only mobster worth tens of millions. How did Pablo Escobar justify his billions? He had everything and yet nobody asked questions until he killed a minister of justice. Different country perhaps, but there are many rich criminals able to spend their fortune.

[Angelo Santino]

Things Franzese has just started saying recently...

1. Junior approached him about being underboss.
2. Chin asked him if he wanted to join the Genovese Family
3. He knows Hoffa’s killer, who he says is alive and in prison. He says he has tapes to back it up.

And as far as the gas scam, his numbers are all over the place. I’ve seen interviews where he said they were doing $6M-$7M per week. Other times he’s said $9M-$10M. I will say he has been consistent in saying that he himself usually kept around $2M from the gas scam after they whacked it up.

The guy made millions as a Capo in the Colombo Family. His “dad” is Sonny Franzese. That’s a plenty interesting story. All the extras he likes to throw in there make him lose credibility.

Agreed.

Re. the Gas Scam, I'd be able to believe he was seeing tens of thousands a week but 2 million? I'd buy he made that for the duration of the scam but weekly? I wasn't there so...

Despite it all, I found his candid discussion while playing the game to be interesting, more so than his documentary appearances.

Now if I can just find Nicky Crow Caramandi, I'd send him a fucking xBox and pay him 500 to record himself playing GTA.

If it's true that he had a yacht, a private airplane and mansions in Miami and Los Angeles then he certainly made much more than 2 million, and that gas scam was his bread and butter and fame and fortune.

What are the average estimates this scam produced according to people in the know who aren't Michael Franzese?

If it's true. Note if he says "I had access to __" which is different than outright owning. Was he able to justify that income/lifestyle on a tax return? By the 1970's the FBI relied on forensic accounting to trip up guys when informants weren't there to be utilized.

He specifically says he owned it. You make a fair point, but was the gas scam not a legitimate enterprise until it wasn't? Also, he owned legitimate businesses that could justify some of his income. He certainly wouldn't be the only mobster worth tens of millions. How did people such as Pablo Escobar justify his billions? The guy had everything and yet nobody asked questions until he killed a minister of justice. Different country perhaps but still, the point is there are many rich crimimals able to spend their fortune.

Not really a point as I don't have the details. Someone could post that MF justified it by having a rich uncle on paper who left him an inheritance. This all came out of him inflating his rank over the years and if he's going to mislead/hype up info on that what's to stop him from applying that same logic to his income?... I really wouldn't put MF and Escobar in the same category for a multiude of reasons- different business, different countries, different level of power. But I get what you're saying, people use legitimate fronts to justify their income and lifestyle. If MF was making 2 million a week, 8 mil a month, how did he manage to justify that on paper? That's a Scarface "What to do with all the goddamn cash?" situation. And during a time when the FBI was amping up their investigations owning a few laundry mats or any other standard cash operations aren't going to do much to insulate him.

And I don't even know how the gas scam worked. It involved the Russians so there's a cut there, it likely involved other people so more cuts there. Most mafia racket figures, "a 2 million dollar a year ____" whatever reads good on paper, but the way the money is cut up and how it goes out, those involved end up seeing anywhere to 5 to 6 figures a year until they are caught and face 10-15 federal.

Also, MF the Gas Guru was evidently beaten out by Gotti the Bergin highjack bumbler in some despute. MF allegedly said: "Fuck John Gotti" and when it got back to Gotti he brought it up to MF who then responded: "Whoever said that would be no friend of ours." I believe that was replicated in GF3 with Pacino and Joe Montaga. Anyway, if this guy was the Colombo golden child heir-to-the-throne, you'd think he'd have been able to win against Gotti who apart from Dellacroce lacked the admin support.

[Grouchy Sinatra]

If Franzese was making what he claims with the gas scam I seriously doubt he would have gotten the lion's share of it. His father not withstanding he would have gotten muscled out of that racket if it was that lucrative.

[Lupara]

Not really a point as I don't have the details. Someone could post that MF justified it by having a rich uncle on paper who left him an inheritance. This all came out of him inflating his rank over the years and if he's going to mislead/hype up info on that what's to stop him from applying that same logic to his income?... I really wouldn't put MF and Escobar in the same category for a multiude of reasons- different business, different countries, different level of power. But I get what you're saying, people use legitimate fronts to justify their income and lifestyle. If MF was making 2 million a week, 8 mil a month, how did he manage to justify that on paper? That's a Scarface "What to do with all the goddamn cash?" situation. And during a time when the FBI was amping up their investigations owning a few laundry mats or any other standard cash operations aren't going to do much to insulate him.

And I don't even know how the gas scam worked. It involved the Russians so there's a cut there, it likely involved other people so more cuts there. Most mafia racket figures, "a 2 million dollar a year ____" whatever reads good on paper, but the way the money is cut up and how it goes out, those involved end up seeing anywhere to 5 to 6 figures a year until they are caught and face 10-15 federal.

Yes that was the point I'm making. He could probably justify an income that would warrant owning those things, unless the yacht and plane were worth a 100 million, which he didn't specify. He did own a movie business that could justify several millions. But it didn't insulate him because his lifestyle (and name) alone put him on the radar. And once the feds want you in jail, they'll get it done one way or another. I don't know if he was indicted on tax evasion and whatnot, but it would make sense.

[Angelo Santino]

If Franzese was making what he claims with the gas scam I seriously doubt he would have gotten the lion's share of it. His father not withstanding he would have gotten muscled out of that racket if it was that lucrative.

That or other people would have gotten involved. Had he been making 2 million a month let alone a week I could see Junior telling MF that he needs help to make sure this gasoline thing is managed carefully and he's putting Ally Boy in there to make sure things stay on track. Which, if you know the Persicos that's step one into taking something over something and keeping it for themselves. In the 1980s, that top richest aside, the average member probably went through between 20 and 100K a year from low to high. Some soldiers and captains were probably in the millions. If MF was pulling in 2 a week(+100 million a year) by himself the commission would have made him a 6th member and asked to go in on it. It doesn't add up.

[Angelo Santino]

Well in 1986 he agreed to pay 14.7 million in restitution and was "just happy that it was over." So the guy was obviously earning well. On the flipside, had he earned considerably more than that in the scam (estimated at 40 million) the FBI would have went after that.

South_Florida_Sun_Sentinel_Tue__Mar_25__1986_.jpg

[Grouchy Sinatra]

If Mike was really making that much people from all families would have "borrowed" a good 3/4 of it from him, especially Gotti.

[Angelo Santino]

And just to put to rest any doubt that he testified.

The_South_Bend_Tribune_Wed__Mar_15__1989_.jpg