How plausible is it that Michael could easily give 700 million to Archibishop Gilday in The Godfather Part III? This suggests that by 1979 he must have been a multi-billionaire. We are to believe he made all this money with the hotels he owned in Las Vegas.

However, in Part II, it's implied that Michael didn't directly owned his hotels as he needed front man to run them for him. The Chicago Outfit also controlled many hotels from the 1950s to the 1980s and made millions of dollars, maybe even hundreds of millions, but billions?

Although this situation could have changed over the years when he became more and more a legitimate businessman, could he really have made billions of dollars as an hotel entrepreneur/gambling czar?

I believe the righest gangsters probably had a couple of hundred million as personal wealth. But I'm not sure there was one that was in fact a multi-billionaire like Michael Corleone.

You're thoughts?

The film does not make clear the relationship between Michael and his sources of wealth. The novel provides some insight. The Corleone family owned tremendously valuable real estate in midtown NY, whole office buildings, pieces of banks, garment center firms, and parts of brokerage firms as well as four LV casinos. And that was as of the late 40s. In order to avoid IRS prosecution or other federal prosecution, Michael would have disguised his access to those assets and the funds they generated. Also, his buyout of Immobliere would probably have been leveraged.

In the conversation with Gilday, Michael references selling the casinos. This could have resulted in a tremendous amount of cash on hand. Plus, as Olivant notes, the Family had myriad other investments presumably accruing in value over decades. So billions does not seem to be unreasonable.

Although I don't know that Michael's commitment of $700M to Immobliere indicates that he was a "multi-billionaire." Immobliere was, to Michael, his one chance to, as Gilday put it, "wash away" the sins of himself and his Family. I wouldn't be surprised if Michael went all-in on that chance. Even if his fortune was "only" $900M, I could see him giving most of it up in that deal. Not to mention that it wasn't a charitable donation: he would have controlled an incredibly profitable business and may have become, again according to Gilday, "one of the richest men in the world."

So, multi-billionaire or not, $700M doesn't seem out of line.

But this was when he was still running the family in New York. After he left for Nevada Peter Clemenza took over.

So you think Michael still got his share from the profits in New York, although he was not running things there anymore?

If so, it means he remained the top boss of the entire Corleone organization.

The extensive holdings of the Corleone family were so diverse that, yes, many of the more sophisticated ones remained under Michael's control. When he tells Zasa that there are no percentages he is due, he is referring to street activity. As the decades evolved, the sophistication of Michael's investments increased whether legitimate or not. And, yes, Vinny summed up Michael's position when he told him that he was like the Supreme Court and that Zasa thought that Michael stood in his way of rising up in the Commission.

Good question, Sonny.

It's possible that Michael was a multi-billionaire for all the reasons Olivant and Last Woltz cited. But what I find less than credible is that he'd hand over $700 million to bail out the Vatican Bank:

Great wealth always carries a certain amount of public disapprobation--the novel is prefaced with Balzac's famous aphorism: "Behind every great fortune there is a crime." In the US, the "robber barons" of the late 19th Century--Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford, Morgan, Mellon--understood the power of money to wash away sins, and did so publicly through their foundations, charitable trusts, endowments, libraries, etc. Charity, such as the Vito and Carmella Corleone Foundation and its $100 million gift to Sicily, is good in people's minds. But, if Michael bailed out the Vatican Bank to the tune of $700 million, there'd have been a wave of suspicion and criticism, to wit: what is this gangster hoping to get out of the Vatican beyond being made a Knight of St. Sebastian? Is he trying to buy the Papacy? Is he hoping to get the Vatican Bank to invest in Immobiliare? Is he going to use his new-found "respectability" as a cover for more nefarious criminal activities? European politicians and regulators would have been forced to raise questions. It'd be exactly the kind of publicity Michael didn't need.

That transaction would not have been exposed to legal or public scrutiny. Harrison was able to represent it publicaly as not only a donation, but as just 1/6th of its value.

However, the whole scenario of a Mafia Don (even a former one) investing in a high profile corporation in such a high profile way just doesn't happen except in fiction.

This is another reason why there should be a Godfather IV.

This is from the transcript:


VOICE OVER as we see a Financial Times headline (dated Wednesday, November 15, 1979): "Building an Empire: Corleone Proposal for New Immobiliare"

"The motion and a discussion relates to the Corleone group’s proposal to acquire one hundred million newly issued, Class A, quoted shares…"

FADE IN: ANOTHER VOICE OVER as we see a New York Times Business Day headline: "Corleone Group to Bid to Take Over Immobiliare"

"…$600 million and Corleone capital invested directly into International Immobiliare, an old and respected European company that Michael Corleone has an ambitious program to expand this real estate holding company, into an international conglomerate that could meet the challenge…"

FADE IN: Headline from the Wall Street Journal (November 15, 1979): "Immobiliare Takeover Appears Likely. Stock Soars".

Good points al across the thread. In addition to the vast real estate holdings in New York, as well as the Vegas Casinos,the Corleones were in on the ground floor fo the subsidized redevelopment of Atlantic City into an erstwhile East Coase gambling mecca. Although Atlantic City never lived up to its promise (ask Donald Trump) lots of people made lots of money developing those casinos. THis was going on when Vegas was just beginning to undergo the vast changes from the days of the rat pack to the way vegas is now. Mike had to have made a fortune selling all that Vegas and redeceloped Atlantic City property alone. Keep in mind there is an allusion to this when Michael has the meeting with the coission during which he announces he is cutting through all the red tape and handing out returns on investments. All the investors are telling Michael that he is a genius, that he is "blessed" and the only ones with regrets are Zasa who got nothing, and the guy who got a low return because he made a low investment.

"That transaction" refers to Michael's donation to the Vatican bank.

and don't forget all that money he made selling olive oil.

Michael could also have had a line of sauces; afterall, Clemenza did show him how to make the sauce (shove in all your meat and sausage).

As an aside, in Atlantic City, Trump Marina was recently sold to the Golden Nugget for $38 mil. In 1987, Steve Wynn sold the Golden Nugget (different building) to Hilton for $400 mil. The times they are a changin'.

Michael could also have had a line of sauces; afterall,



I've seen Michelina's brand in the frozen food ccounter... lasagna eggplant parmasean.... definitely a long time Corleone operation. Hell, maybe he owned ConAgra.

Of course, you can't fit everything into a film and not everything is meant to be in a film. But I have to wonder if Michael escaped IRS scrutiny through the three decades during which he accumulated such wealth. Apparently, Vito was able to do it.

Especially in the period after he bought Immobliare. It could have turned out in a big scandal if the press caught wind of the shady deal. And they usually do.

This whole time I thought Clem was giving him relationship advise regarding Kay....