How much money do you think Tony Soprano made?

Obviously we have no way of figuring out exactly...but an estimate,based on what we've seen people kick up to him,what we know of his operation(chop shops,the club,high stakes card game,various forms of fraud(HUD scam,the Esplanade project,wire fraud as we see in S6,calling cards scam),and the more traditional stuff like gambling,drug dealing,extortion,truck hijacking etc.,what properties he might have owned...

The problem I think was that The Sopranos was pretty inconsistent with how 'the money' was portrayed on the show.We've seen Tony making a big deal out of a relatively small amount of cash(others too,especially Paulie).Yet at other times he's buying thousands of dollars worth of jewelery,gambling away huge amounts of money like its nothing etc.,buying Porsches,buying houses near the beach...

In season 6,don't remember which episode,the one were Tony had his gambling problems,we've seen Tony struggling to pay his debt to Hesh,or giving Vito's wife 100k for her to relocate(I imagine it was a pretty good deal because in the long run he'd spend way more money taking care of her).Then in some other episode he's considering buying his incompetent son a club(maybe we should just get him a club).Don't know how much getting him a club would cost but the way he said it you'd think he was talking about a scooter or a bike.


In one episode Hesh says Tony minus assets is worth "under six". but its not clear if he means six million or six hundred...

Any opinions?

well judging by

-the big house
- the house on the shore almost bought
-meadow in COLUMBIA
-AJ's wakadoo treatment
- the way he dresses eats n gambles
- Carm's gifts every now n then
- money in the duck foods container
- money stuffed under the garage tiles

i would have to say hmmm ALOT ! hahaha

You sure he didn't mean without Tony's assets he'd be 6 feet under (the ground)?

i took it to mean under 6 million which is still a huge sum

Agreed it was six million that Hesh was talking about but I disagree that it's still a huge sum (for a boss of a New York area Family).

Actually if Tony had a billion dollars, he would never have given Vito's wife anything as the mob nowadays is all about "me me me".

I thought Tony was Jersey, not New York. Six million is a massive amount for a Jersey boss.

Go back and read.... New York AREA boss.

And no, a net worth of $6 mil is not a massive amount for a crime boss.

I did see the New York area boss bit.

I would have thought that $1 would be big time for the likes of John Gotti.

Lets not forget he would never of had billions or a very very large sum.He had difficulties ligitamising 6 mil then, let alone alot more.Although SC would be right.Otherwise he wouldn't be pissed at his men for not performing as they should.There supposed to be recession proof, so I guess he would be looking for at least double that figure.Plus it's minus assets.So It probably is double anyway.

I think $6 million might have been a little low but not necessarily.

In her new book, Victoria Gotti claims that she doesn't know how much her father was worth but thinks , based on later conversations with her brother that it was somewhere around $12 million. In Selwyn Raab's book , FBI agent Bruce Mouw thought that Gotti was worth at least $20 million before his final imprisonment.

As the series continually pointed out, Tony came in at the end of a cycle. He also wasn't the best money maker in the world. His Family was relatively small and would have had to share New Jersey not only with the NY family(ies) but also with Philly.

Also illegal gambling has to compete with state lotteries; loansharking has to compete with payday loans and credit cards and even executive gambling games have to compete with nearby AC casinos. And of course everyone who works for Tony is a criminal so they will never kick up every piece of tribute that they're supposed to.

So $6-8 million net worth may not be that far out of line for a relatively small time boss in the modern era.

I sorta figured him to be worth something like at least million on paper, with his house, "income" from Barone Sanitation and his various assets.

In reality though, i pictured Tony as being worth 2, 3 or up to 5 million (on the outside) on the street; that is, all his money on the street, the sum of his rackets and points in various business, the "kick-up" from his "Family" (or as Big Carmine put it, "glorified crew") and , of course, the money he has stashed in his off-shore accounts and varoius nest-eggs.

Nothing to sneeze at, and far beyond his father's and uncle's achievements, but still not exactly in the world of high finance, something i believe he's aware of.

I may be completely wrong in my assumptions, though. I live in Australia, where a million is worth a bit more. Heh.

I am sure Tony went up and down. Generally, he was probably netting huge sums. As seen many times. But he spends it just as soon as he gets it. So its an up and down roller coaster. Hes probably averaging about 6 million. But he starts to blow it all. But someone like him, can probably make it back in no time.

Plus, you have to remember, this show is still fiction. Everything that happens does not have to make sense. One moment the writers want you to think he has more money than he knows what to do with. The next, they want you to think hes in the hole for dramatic effect.

Yeah tough call but good question!
I read somewhere that when Gotti was in charge of the Gambino's, the Gambino (whole family) were making 500+ Mill a year.

Pass on Tony though, I would think more than 6 but that it was hidden to even his closest friends (or Carm).
Perhaps detailed in his will.

I don't know how much Tony would have made public in a will — or if he even had a will.

Yeah, I always took that "under six" comment by Hesh to mean Tony's total worth - in cash and assets - was under $6 million. Earlier in the series, investigators estimated that Johnny Sac was worth about $5 million total. Believable figures, in my opinion.

In terms of assets, Tony had his house, the cars, his boat, and some real estate properties. His legitimate income was a large salary from Barone Sanitation. And, of course, all the tribute he received from the gambling, loansharking, extortion, scams, theft, construction kickbacks, etc.

Of course, as Hesh also said, Tony often spent it as fast as he made it. And anyone who has read about real mobsters knows they are as likely to bicker over nickles and dimes as they are big money.

If someone has money like that that they can't really declare I wonder how IRL they successfully hide it. Also these days it seems that government has been more aggressive at seizing assets -not only in the accused's name but from wives and family members.

i always wonderin why he was so apt to pay back hesh when he was rolling in the doe

I thought it was because he literally didn't have that much money on hand. Plus he probably thought he should have won those bets, so he was extra pissed that he mushed out and blew the bridge loan and had to pay it back. Hesh called it - what he made went right out the door. He had an exceptionally large overhead; ivy league tuition, cars for his kids, his wife's pet projects/jewlery/clothes, plus his gambling, boat and all that other shit.

Throughout the series he made references to having money overseas (and we see how he sends it there in Season 3) so I'm sure he had a nice nest egg, but besides whatever cash he got kicked up to him that current week I'd guess he had no liquidity.

In real life, I bet any of the bosses anywhere in the country would be happy to make the kind of money they portrayed him making on that show.

Tony was probably worth somewhere between four to six million. Massino had to forfeit about $10 million, but he was probably worth more.

Most of the New York bosses are millionaires many times over. Even the bosses of today. Danny Marino owns a ton of property. Badalamenti, Bellomo and Crea also live very well.

But make no mistake about it, most mob guys are brokesters and bums who are too lazy to work.

^ I agree but when you're talking about assets, especially real estate that was bought buy these guys back in the 60s and 70s, its probably better to be conservative with the dollar amount these guys were pulling in each year. Like a house in Howard Beach bought in the 60s for a hundred grand could easily be worth at least 1 million today. Shit... a full house almost anywhere in the boroughs bought back then is probably worth 7 to 10 times more today. I think Massino owned 3 houses or something, plus a bakery and a restaurant. When they made him forfeit $10MM at least half of that was in property that skyrocketed in value over the years... and the other half was a number the government came up with that they predicted he made on rackets and then inflated.

I'm not trying to be a sticker but I have a hard time these guys are pulling in HUGE money today. Im just guessing but my guess is the most theoretically succesful top guys on the street today are making like 300 Grand a year

Fact is most mob guys are broke bums who live with their mothers. I may be exaggerating a little bit, but they're definitely in bad shape. However, the leaders have almost always done well.

Massino forfeited over 7 million in cash and 267 gold bars, with the price of gold now that was probably another 3 or 4 million.

My guess is NONE, HES A FICTIONAL CHARACTER. I guess Dave Chapelle is right!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCDDsCFx3pM

Tony had his big house when he was a capo from season 1 and luxury cars.

[BadWord] to pay off his debts. You get the feeling that before Vito was killed he was kicking up 500K a year to Tony.

As others have said, he gave Carmella 500K for her investment house and was paying 40K a year for Meadows college.

Its hard 2 put a number on tonys worth but he definitely made a lot of money . Like a lot of guys in that life I think he just like to cry poor.

Need to correct myself on this. Watched that episode a while back and Hesh was talking about Tony's money "minus assets." Which, I assume, means he was talking about how much he thought Tony had in liquid cash. I'm sure by "under six" he meant under $600,000.

I remember that in one episode it was said by someone that Tony was a multi-millionaire.

He was. But that was including cash + assets (house, cars, boat, real estate, etc.)

I believe it was Cristopher who made a remark that Tony "had all those millions" or something like that.

How do you guys think Carmela would have managed if Tony was in fact murdered?

She probably would have inherited all the assets, but what about the cash Tony had on secret accounts in Europe/Russia? Could she have gotten access to this?

She obviously would have gotten the house, it's contents, the cars, the boat, and whatever else Tony owned. He told her she was set in perpetuity, from which she could expect ongoing income from deposits overseas. I assume Tony wouldn't have gone to all that trouble and risk without being sure his family could have access to the money. With Tony being murdered, Carmella would certainly have been better off than Ginny Sacrimoni, who lost a lot of her husband's money and assets in the plea deal.