I touched on this in my last post a little bit, but were there any members of the American mob who were making money compared to what the top earners in la cosa nostra, ndrangheta or Camorra were earning? And at what point did the mafia in Italy really overtake the American mob in terms of wealth and power?

You can compare the american mafia with the other italian mafias.The ndrangheta control an entire region where some town are interdected to the police and there are on 2 milion people a mobster every 300;the camorra its more violent that organizated but even in the small clan can made milions only extorting big companies and in sicily even made milions only steeling the EU funds.

i think that Michael Francese at the peak with the gas scam can be compared with an italian mafias top earner.

I’m glad that you commented because I believe it was you who told me about Francesco Schiavone and his wealth. I read that hundreds of millions of dollars were confiscated from his estate by the government and he kept growing despite that. Did Franzese or any other American compare to someone like him?

Look at the car guy from the Colombos, I am not sure that we are allowed to spell his name out, he is worth more on his own than just about any small family that is left. Also Papa Smurf, Charlie the Blade and Gerry Catena from the Genovese all made ridiculous amounts of money.

http://www.cinquantamila.it/storyTellerThread.php?threadId=SCHIAVONE%20Francesco

The Casalesi clan net worth in 2008 was of 30 bilions euro and Schiavone family made about 200 milions euro.So I think that no,maybe Michael Franzese but not others.

I think Robert Saviano said around $700 million was confiscated from Schiavone in one legal proceeding. Only he knows how much more he had. Is the Casalesi clan the most powerful in the Camorra?

I’ve heard of Catena. I’m aware that he was once on the board of directors for Bally’s

Yes more powerful and more organizated.

Are they still a part of the Camorra or are they separate? I started watching Gomorrah recently so I’m waiting for them to be referenced in the show.

Has the Di Lauro clan ever compared to them in terms of power?

The DiLauro clan was and is more a drug cartel while the Casalesi clan made money also with construction,extortion,selling counterfeit goods, stealing European funds for agriculture, selling expired food, etc.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was always under the impression that part of the reason mobsters in Italy/Europe tended to be more wealthy on the high end of the spectrum was because they are more likely to get into things such as human trafficking that your average American wiseguy probably isn't going to.

no, mostly because of management of public works, stealing eu funds, and massive money laundering in order pushing away honest enterprises, italian mafias in italy control tons of companies in every sector (agricultural, fish markets, vegetable markets, restaurants, hotels, building enterprises, waste disposal etc.)

Haven't they had a strong influence in the government since after the allies put them in government seats following Italy's defeat? The Americans almost had it when they got Kennedy into office. And that was that.

How about Semion Mogilevich? I’m going to assume that he’s richer than anyone in the Italian mafia. I started to read up on him a little bit.

i think matteo messina denaro is richer than mogilevich, italian police seized 1,5 billion euros to him (only the part seized)

He's rich, but the real power behind him is Mikhas Mikhailov.

I think he’s worth billions too.

I would think that some Ndrangheta bosses might be billionaires too.

Who are the top people in the ndrangheta anyway? They appear to be very much on the down low

In January 2010, police seized construction companies, villas, shops and vehicles worth some 550 million euros from a western Sicilian construction magnate, Rosario Cascio, believed to be one of the main bankrollers and money launderers for Messina Denaro. Together with 700 million euros in assets taken from supermarket magnate Giuseppe Grigoli at the end of 2008 and 200 million euros from construction tycoon Francesco Pecora in November 2009.In September 2010, police seized a record amount of assets worth 1.5 billion euros from a Sicilian businessman Vito Nicastri accused of working with Messina Denaro. He had invested in wind and solar energy sources, as a way of laundering money.

Yes, I read in a book that there is many Ndrangheta bosses who lives in Calabria in very shitty houses, drives shitty cars etc but they are billionaires.


Anyway, they caught some Ndrangheta boss from Canada not to long ago and they could trace like 250 million dollars that he had moved around in banks. And thats just from 2006 -2013. I find it hard to believe thats all the money he had, he probably has some more that they couldnt trace.


Vincenzo “Jimmy” DeMaria , his name.

What book? And I tried to find something online about money being traced back to him but didn’t see it. Only talks about his conviction from what I see. Not that I dug deep for it.

Are there any estimates on how much more he has? And I wonder if he has more than the current ndrangheta bosses. My guess would be that he’s probably just as rich as them if not more so.

He probably is there with the top Ndrangheta bosses. He has been on the top of the game for a long time. Im pretty sure he is a multi billionaire.

If he has operations in Canada and other countries then I’m sure you’re right.

According to wiretaps he is back in Sicily,but he also spent some time in Calabria,which just confirms that Sicilian Mafia and 'Ndrangheta are working together

And in Northern Italy where he's protected by the 'ndrangheta, according to an informant, who also met him in the port of Palermo.