a lot of those philly guys were surpised according to georgre A that joey had his own scams going on they did not know about it and were pissed they were not getting anything and this fundraising thing was not popular move by merlino. I agree with blackjack its typical merlino just him being greedy. Like back in the 90s with bobby lusi he was taking 10k a month and made capo someone who everyone knew was not capable to be capo but he did anyway because he is greedy. He bet into johnny changs book one of his own guys he is just greedy.Even with that scam they had going on he tried to get out of paying 7k to New York just merlino being merlino really.

Also if someone like parello vouches for someone he is not going to question. Will be interesting to see if joey takes it to trial