I have heard it said that he made about 1 billion with the gas scheme...although its disputed how much was his idea versus the Russians that were working on him

but was he really making that much? i assume drugs is still the most profitable racket. I doubt he was making more than say Big Meech and BMF who i believe was making billions in the drug trade?

Franzese made huge money in short time while the cartels and big gangs are making the same money every years and there are different times,Franzese made the gas scam in 1970s early 1980s while big cartels have his peak in the 1980s.
The mob doesnt have today the men for create large drug rings like the bmf and prefer the white collar crimes.

Gasoline Scheme was big, but i think it originated in Brighton Beach they started working with Colombo's and Lucchese's.

It still went on from 1996-2000

https://groups.google.com/g/soc.culture.ukrainian/c/8UINV0S2Eh0

Meech wasn't making that much. Franzese may have been the biggest, but there were a few guys around who probably had him beat. Two are still alive. Tommy Gambino and Salvatore Avellino

No. Even though he was a great earner, Anthony Casso is in fact the best earner of all time.

Your infatuation with rats is frightening

Ok.

Reddit didn't give good enough answers you decided to ask here?

He wrongly got credit for running it and starting it, when in fact it was The Russians who did both. Franzese got the big publicity for it due to being in the mafia and the son of John Franzese. I wish there was more information on what the others in it got as to money made and prison sentences.

I also read the first providing bootleg gasoline in NYC were actually Greek and Turkish immigrants.

Casso said they made $500,000- $1.2 mill a month...

Franzese claims he made $2 million a week...

Hard to believe but I find Casso more credible !!

Agreed. Casso is being honest on this one, and Franzese is embellishing.

Gas scheme was huge, but I doubt it was as big as Franzese claims. Pablo Escobar wasn't making that kind of money during that same time.

Plus Casso was the underboss of the Lucchese crime Family. Who not only made money off the gas scheme but also controlled the garment industry in New York.

I'll take Casso's word over Franzese's any day of the week.

Marat Yakovlevich Balagula was the big guy a Jewish American organized crime figure, crime boss and close associate of the Lucchese crime family and the Colombo crime family.

The Nayfeld brothers also..

Michael Franzese made more than BMF and Big Meech, I'll tell you that much. Maybe not as much as he claims, but who knows. No way Meech made billions, maybe hundreds of millions though I doubt it. I would say millions or even tens of millions perhaps. But if you look at Franzese's lifestyle when he was bringing in all that money, it just seems like more than a lousy 500k or a million a month. Also consider that to this day he doesn't work a real job.

It baffles me how many of you apparently haven't read the guys book. Yall be saying a bunch of stuff thats.... i dunno... they just seem more like opinions...


First off Sonny was on paper and in and out of jail. It's just like Gotti told him at their now famous sitdown..." Your Dad can't win this, he CANT FIGHT FOR YOU"...
I think Scarfo told Leonetti something similar... like you gotta stand on your own 2 feet out here. The family reappropriated all Sonny's rackets. Michael got his start actually with used car lots. Everyone seems to think he was just useless and inherited everything.

His first big thing was a shipping container repair company during phantom work.

The numbers should be in the indictment... I dunno. They did a lot of paperwork magic, but a reasonable estimate should be possible from the volume of gasoline moved.

And the key to the scheme was the licensing... which the Russians couldn't get without a contact... this especially true after the G changed the tax law.

I’d say Fat Tony and Joe Kennedy should be considered as well. Esp. J. Kennedy not only made incredible money but went on to be an ambassador himself, got his son elected president and another a senator. The family has had money and influence for decades! Still does. The guy made generational money

I don't count the Kennedys, they were born plugged into the Establishment, not the same as guys who came straight from the streets and have to worm their way into it. If we really wanted to go there, then we could say that all politicians are gangsters, the Bushes, Clintons, Dick Cheney, Donald Runsfeld,etc.

A criminal is a criminal. Doesn’t matter their social status. But okay

How many people has Clinton and other administrators killed? I only remember hearing one person. Some enemies kill themselves during strange circumstances. Probably due to CIA devices into the brain hearing “voices and screams”

A nice house and a supposed helicopter ?? How much can that cost ??

Because there's nothing more legit then an egomaniac trying to sell his book, right ??

Wilt Chamberlin's book said he banged 20,000 girls...Believe that too ??

Btw, I read his book, and found around 60% to be BS...Most of all his becoming a christian, which is most insulting..He's as christian as Al Sharpton's a reverend !!

If we adjust the amount of money that Franzese was making for inflation, even in the 1980s, it was a ton. A million a month was really 3 million a month. That's a mountain of money in the 80s.

Not taking anything away from him, he was a big money maker, I just think he exaggerated..but it wasn't even his scam...It was brought to him, even though he probably expanded it...I'll give him credit for that !!

No it wasn't his scam. I honestly don't think anyone really knows who came up with it, but I believe it began with the Russians. I love how 4 of the 5 New York Families muscled in though. It showed who the big dogs were in the NYC underworld at the time.

The gas scam made his name, and got him famous. If he was truthful and admitted he made a but less, or way less money, it hurts his rep. His claims to fame is that gas scam, and being John Franzese's son.

Substitute oil/gas for drugs. The Russians were basically Sollozzo, Franzese provided the contacts to the State infrastructure for licensing and LLCs and all that. They could certainly do the racket on their own, but no where near as big I think..