I'm wondering how Castellano's faction controlled the Unions and still had their soldiers with the traditional structure, did the Capo's have a Union chair with the soldiers being union delegates? or was it just extortion of the Union sites, i know there were others such as forgery, money laundering and ponzi schemes but the Unions were the big picture

It would be the same if the solider was a union boss he'd still kick up money to his captain. For example Gambino solider Richard Martino, who scammed something like 450 million from a couple of internet and phone cramming scams, kicked up to his captain Salvatore Locasio. Pretty sure Martino was making a lot more money than Locasio but since he was the captain supervising him he got his taste. The other way around would be Tommy Gambino controlling the garment district but still supervised a crew in Conneticut that made their money off of gambling.

When people mention "white collar," in terms of Castellano controlling the "white collar faction" of the family or wanting the family to move towards more "white collar" endeavors, they're talking about labor union racketeering and business racketeering in the legitimate industries the family was involved in - the waterfront, construction, garbage, the garment center, meat wholesaling, trucking, etc. Like the other families, many Gambino members and associates held positions in these unions and/or companies; not just to facilitate mob control but also for having a legitimate source of income.

It was said every construction job that was worth over 2 million dollars the mob would get 2 percent, and there was a kind of a committee called the two percent club that representatives from all the 5 families and they would decide who controlled which projects.

There were several men involved. It was pretty amazing. Went on for 7 years. Martino had to forfeit $15 million of his own money and went to jail. Don't know all the people who received money, probably lots more, but it was a HUGE scam for 7 years.

Found an article saying martino kicked up $8 million to Sal Locascio on ne occasion, Martino made a killing, he's set for life now.

id like to kille the lying fuckin retard reporter that coined that term. "white collar rackets". How many laborers do you know that consider themselves white collar???? Are you fucking kidding me? How is labor unions white collar crime? Its like the fucking bullshit some reporter dreamed up about how "sources inside the family say the rank and file captains have complained over the demand of a 10% take on crew money to 15%".... And you guys bought it... 90% of america buys it, they buy that Franky Cali was made boss, then turns it down saying "no im happy at underboss where im off the radar"... WTF! For real? If i publish a book that says i fucked kate middleton does that make it the truth???? I cant stand fucking reporters. Journalists are right there with cops and probation officers in my book. Paul took 75% from any deals that happened with 282... Guess what john gotti took? 75%!!! Some detective ad libs at a fucking press conference and says genovese mobsters drive buicks instead of cadillacs and IVy goes around quoting it 40 fucking times like hes the bees knees, thinking wow isnt that cool! I know a westside guy who drives a fucking bright yellow 360 modena! hows that for a buick? Some cocksucking cop calls the genovese family the worst dressed and you guys automatically take it to heart. Quoting a bunch of reporter bullshit gossip about how barney showed up to a funeral in a sweatshirt. IF A LIE GETS PASSED AROUND ENOUGH IT BECOMES FACT. PPL say how the westside has this super invisible administration structure.... bla bla bla bullshit. If i can tell you the top guy on the street so can any made guy in the family. They ask for less money in tribute from their captains??? BULLSHIT. They are just as greedy as the next family. u guys think every fucking genovese guy walks on water... the truth is they have a good track record and good leadership... Guys on here that think that the genovese family is above making dope heads and bums, you dont knows the street. Sorry, not claiming i do, but you guys need to face reality here.

Skinny, Reporters are dumb assholes who don't know anything and always WAYYYY exaggerate everything to make it 'NEWSWORTHY'

Don't know how well the Genovese guys dress in general. That's between You and Ivy. I know I liked Gotti's Italian suits and silk ties. LOL

Gravano said he passed up 80%. That's a hell of a lot more than 10 or 15%. I didn't say anything because it was New York, and I try to stay out of intense Discussions about New York. I'm much safer sticking to Chicago. LOL.

I thought the 10 to 15% figure was low. Maybe on some things it could be that low, but not on everything. Again, I do not claim to know, you would know a lot more about that than me.

Bosses in Chicago would be more directly involved as financial backers or political backers with their Crews and they made anywhere from 25% to 50%.

i agree! assume 25% of any biz at a min. Unless ur like mario gigante and dont have to kick up anything

White-collar crime is financially motivated nonviolent crime committed for illegal monetary gain. Within criminology, it was first defined by sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation". Sutherland was a proponent of symbolic interactionism and believed that criminal behavior was learned from interpersonal interactions. White-collar crime is similar to corporate crime as white-collar employees are more likely to commit fraud, bribery, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, embezzlement, cybercrime, copyright infringement, money laundering, identity theft, and forgery.
His theory was the result of his attempt to study two fields, crime and high society, which had previously lacked empirical correlation. His goal was to demonstrate a correlation between money and social status and the likelihood of going to jail for a white-collar crime. Although the percentage has risen, numbers[which?] still show a large majority of those in jail are poor, blue-collar criminals.
Many attribute the social climate following the Great Depression as the factor that led to Sutherland's theory. He noted that in his time, "less than two percent of the persons committed to prisons in a year belong to the upper class". The United States passed antitrust laws in the 1920s and social welfare laws in the 1930s; after the Great Depression, people went to great lengths to rebuild their financial security, and it is theorized this led workers—who worked hard and long and felt underpaid—to take advantage of their positions.
Much of Sutherland's work was to separate and define the differences in blue-collar street crimes, such as arson, burglary, theft, assault, rape, and vandalism, which are often blamed on psychological, associational, and structural factors. Instead, white-collar criminals are opportunists, who learn to take advantage of their circumstances to accumulate financial gain. They are educated, intelligent, affluent, confident individuals whose jobs involve unmonitored access to large sums of money. Precisely because these criminals were held to such high esteem, Sutherland claimed that society turned a blind eye to the crimes they committed.

Supposedly, any job where the total cost of the concrete was $2-15 million only went to the companies in the club, which had to pay 2% of the contract to the four families involved. Any job where the concrete was over $15 million automatically went to Fat Tony's company, S&A Concrete. Companies outside the club were allowed to bid on jobs under $2 million but had to pay $50,000 to the Colombos.

The companies in the club were:

X.L.O Concrete Corp.
Technical Concrete Construction Corp.
Century-Maxim Construction Corp.
Cedar Park Concrete Corp.
North Berry Concrete Corp.
G&G Concrete Corp.
S&A Concrete Company, Inc.

u missed scara

First, I'm not sure what's going on in your personal life Skinny, but you've been having these temper tantrums for a while now. Take deep breaths. Have you had to make some extraordinarily large payouts lately?

Second, obviously construction is "blue collar" work in the normal sense. However, in the mob sense of the word, things like construction are called "white collar" when compared to the more "blue collar" rackets of gambing, loansharking, drugs, theft, etc. Who first coined these terms, I have no idea.

Third, as for Coffey saying Genovese guys are more likely to drive Buicks than Cadillacs, the basic jist seems to be that - as a whole - that family is more low key and less flashy than the others. You knowing of an exception here or there doesn't change the overall picture anymore than you knowing of some independent bookies means the mob doesn't still control the lion's share of sports betting in the tri-state area.

Fourth, you can certainly give your opinion on who the top Genovese guy on the street is. But should we automatically take that as fact? If a law enforcement source or reporter passes along something, it's bullshit but you shouldn't be questioned?

Fifth, while I imagine greed is just as present in the Genovese family, the 2004 New Jersey OC report did say "Its members and associates are permitted to retain a higher portion of their illegal earnings than those of other LCN families." Now whether this was in reference to Chin not taking a relatively big share, or in reference to the family overall, I don't know.

Sixth, when people talk about the Genovese family being on top, they're talking about the family as a whole. It's overall track record. Not that every single member is a multimillionaire, criminal mastermind with an IQ of 200.

And by the way, if I had a dollar for every time I've seen somebody on these forums say, "You don't know the streets," I'd only have to work part-time.