Thank You Turnbull. In addition, the funny part about the whole thing was that this way exagerrated figure was listed in the Guiness book of World Records as the highest PERSONAL income for an individual. LOL
Gross and net are two way different things, especially when you have partners also involved. Just ask your C.P.A. when he does your taxes. LOL.
You're welcome!
And, you're right on aabout exaggeration:
A big problem in doing scholarship on the Mob is that they aren't the types to leave their collected letters and papers to universities so that people like us can study them. Nor do they file tax returns. So, most of what's written about them is hearsay or worse. Case in point: Meyer Lansky was reputed to be the "richest gangster ever--worth $300 million." That figure stuck to him all his life, and was responsible in large part for the Justice Dept.'s prosecution of him. But Lansky had a competent biographer, Robert Lacey, who traced it to a tabloid-type writer, Hank Messick, who admitted that he heard it second-hand, was impressed by the figure, and ran with it. So did everyone else. Lacey figured Lansky was worth no more than $5 - 6 million at his peak--not peanuts then or now, but not the stuff of $300 million.
Lacey says the reason Lansky lived to 82 and died peacefully is he was never wealthy or powerful enough to incur jealousy--always fatal in the Mob. "He was the accountant, not the boss."
