What Is Michael Franzese's Net Worth?
Michael Franzese is an American former mobster and captain of the Colombo crime family who has a net worth of $4 million. Michael Franzese is the son of reputed Colombo underboss John "Sonny" Franzese. Michael dropped out of college to become a caporegime (captain) of a crew for the Colombo family. He was involved in the gasoline bootlegging rackets and sold millions of gallons of gas with the Russian Mafia. Michael was listed as #18 on "Fortune" magazine's "Fifty Most Wealthy and Powerful Mafia Bosses" list in 1986 and made more money than anyone else for a crime family since Al Capone. He partnered with booking agent Norby Walters and extorted a role for Walters in Michael Jackson's U.S. tour. He also co-founded Motion Picture Marketing.
Franzese was indicted on 14 counts of racketeering, counterfeiting, and extortion from the gasoline bootlegging racket in 1986 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison and $14 million in restitution. Michael was released in 1989, but he was sentenced to four years in 1991 for violating probation and was released in 1994. Franzese is the founder and chairman of the Breaking Out Foundation and is a motivational speaker. He has published the books "Quitting the Mob" (1992), "Blood Covenant" (2003), "The Good, the Bad and the Forgiven" (2009), "I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse" (2011), "From the Godfather to God the Father" (2014), and "Mafia Democracy" (2022). Michael was portrayed by Joseph Bono in the 1990 film "Goodfellas," which earned seven Academy Award nominations.
Early Life
Michael Franzese was born Michael Grillo on May 27, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York. He is the son of Cristina Capobianco-Franzese and Colombo crime family underboss John "Sonny" Franzese. Michael originally believed that Sonny had adopted him after Cristina divorced Frank Grillo, who he thought was his biological father. Michael used the surname Grillo until the age of 18. Sonny was married with three children when he impregnated 16-year-old Cristina, who was a cigarette girl at Manhattan's Stork Club at the time. Cristina married Frank Grillo to avoid the scandal of having a child out of wedlock, but after the mob agreed to let Sonny divorce his wife, he married Cristina. Michael moved to Long Island at one point, and he dropped out of college after Sonny was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 1967 for robbing a bank. On Halloween night in 1975, Franzese became a made man under acting boss Tommy DiBella, taking a blood oath and swearing omertà . In 1980, Michael was a caporegime of a 300-person crew.
Bootlegging
In 1981, Franzese teamed up with Lawrence Salvatore Iorizzo and set up 18 Panama-based stock-bearer companies. Under Panama law, wholesale companies could sell gasoline tax-free to other wholesale companies. Michael worked on the gas scheme with the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn. After the wholesale gas was sold to one company, it was shipped to a different company, and a dummy company would sell the gas on paper and forge tax documents for the company the gasoline was sent to. When enforcement agents would try to collect taxes from the dummy company, it would declare bankruptcy. This gasoline made up between one-third and one-half of the gas that was sold in the New York metropolitan area. According to officials, Iorizzo made $45,000 per month off of the scheme, while Franzese made more than $1.25 million per month because he kept 75% of the profits. However, an associate later testified that Michael actually made $1 million per week, and Franzese said that he made up to $8 million per week at one point. Revenue officials estimated that the scheme led to $250 million in gasoline tax being stolen in New York per year. Michael later took the bootlegging scheme to Florida.
Career
In the 1970s, Franzese began getting involved in legitimate business, and he had a stronghold on businesses such as restaurants, car dealerships, auto repair shops, nightclubs, video stores, travel agencies, and movie production companies by the mid-1980s. By 1980, Michael's firm had partnered with booking agent Norby Walters, and Franzese was tasked with intimidating prospective and existing clients as well as meeting with the agents of clients Walters had problems with. In 1981, Michael extorted a role for Norby on Michael Jackson's U.S. tour. In 1983, the FBI began investigating boxing promoter Don King's connections to organized crime and recruited Franzese to introduce King to an undercover agent with the alias Victor Quintana. Quintana was supposed to give King the impression that he was interested in buying his way into the world of boxing in an attempt to get Don to reveal his criminal associations. However, Quintana didn't follow through with hundreds of thousands of dollars, so the investigation collapsed. In 1985, Walters launched a sports management agency, and Franzese was a silent partner in the venture. Michael also served as the president of the film production company Miami Gold, which produced 1986's "Knights of the City."
Indictment and Prison
Michael was acquitted of racketeering charges in April 1985, and a few months later, he was charged with extortion and counterfeiting in relation to the gasoline bootlegging scheme in New York and Florida. He was indicted on 14 counts in New York and 177 counts in Florida. His partner in the scheme, Lawrence Salvatore Iorizzo, had been sentenced to five years in prison, and he testified against Franzese and others who were involved in the illegal operation. In March 1986, Michael pleaded guilty to one count each of tax conspiracy and racketeering conspiracy, and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was also ordered to pay nearly $15 million in restitution on the federal charges, so he agreed to sell his assets, including a New York mansion and the Miami Gold production company. After reaching a plea deal on the state charges, Franzese was sentenced to nine years in prison for the Florida racketeering charges and ordered to pay $3 million to Florida. His Florida prison sentence would run concurrently with his federal prison sentence. In 1989, Michael testified against Norby Walters in exchange for immunity from prosecution in Walters' case, which involved Norby convincing college athletes to sign illegal representation contracts. After Walters was found guilty, Franzese was granted parole after serving 43 months in prison. However, he violated his probation requirements and was sentenced to four years in federal prison in December 1991. During that imprisonment, a prison guard gave Michael a Bible, and Franzese subsequently became a born-again Christian. During his time in prison, Michael was in solitary confinement for three years.
(Photo by Jeff Gritchen/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
After Prison
After his release from prison in November 1994, Franzese retired from the mob the following year and moved to California with his family. He had received several death threats as well as contracts on his life, including one that was allegedly approved by his father, Sonny.
Michael has gone on to become a motivational speaker, giving speeches at prisons, schools, and other venues. He has also spoken at Christian churches and conferences. In 2002, Franzese appeared in HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" and stated, "A few players from the Yankees had some gambling issues. They got into trouble, couldn't pay the debt and eventually I got involved. [I] spoke with them and said, 'You gotta work this out, get the money, borrow the money, do what you have to do. And if all else fails, I got another way for you to make it up: You're gonna help us win a game.'" He added, "We'd tell them: 'Whatever it is you have to do . . . and if that ball comes to you and the game is on the line, you don't catch the ball." A spokesman for the Yankees organization denied the claims and said that Michael's accusations were "absolutely beyond belief."
In 2013, Franzese was featured in the documentaries "The Definitive Guide to the Mob" and "Inside the American Mob," and in 2014, the autobiographical biopic "God the Father" was released in movie theaters in 20 U.S. cities. He appeared in the 2017 film "Let There Be Light" as a reformed mobster, and he hosted the 2018 stage musical "A Mob Story" at Las Vegas' Plaza Hotel & Casino. In 2019, Michael co-founded the pizza restaurant franchise Slices Pizza, and in 2022, he founded Franzese Wines, which produces and sells Armenian wines. He was featured in the docuseries " Fear City: New York vs The Mafia" (2020) and "American Godfathers: The Five Families" (2024), and in 2020, he created a YouTube channel, which has more than 1.6 million subscribers as of this writing.
Personal Life
Michael has been married twice. He has been married to Camille Garcia since 1985, and they have welcomed seven children together. Camille is a Christian, and she was influential in Michael's decision to leave the mafia. In 2010, Michael's brother John Jr. testified against their father, Sonny, in a racketeering case. John Jr. helped the authorities by wearing a wire during conversations with Sonny. Michael said that Sonny felt "sick" over being betrayed by his son and that John Jr. had been a "nobody in the mob life." Franzese added, "He did it for the money. There's no other reason." Sonny received an eight-year prison sentence and was released at the age of 100 in 2017. He passed away three years later.
Real Estate
Franzese previously lived in an $18 million home in Corona Del Mar, California. The 8,341-square-foot estate includes six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and an elevator, and an infinity edge pool sits on the .26-acre property. He appears to have been a renter of that home, paying around $8,000 per month. In June 2021, he paid $2.89 million for a home in Newport Beach, California.
Read more: Michael Franzese Net Worth
0 Comments