Former mobster Michael Franzese, portrayed by actor Joseph Bono in the 1990 Martin Scoresese movie, Goodfellas, spent a decade in federal prison after he was convicted on federal racketeering charges.
Goodfellas (1990) Joseph Bono as Mikey Franzese Menu Movies
What happened to Franzese in 1985?
Indictment and prison. In April 1985, Franzese was acquitted of racketeering charges. In another case in December 1985, Franzese was charged in both Florida and New York in regards to counterfeiting and extortion from the gasoline bootlegging racket. In New York, Franzese was one of nine people indicted on 14 counts.
Authorities believe the money was laundered through Franzese’s film production company, Miami Gold, to offshore bank accounts in Austria and Panama. Franzese bought a home in Delray Beach , Florida. In 1986, Fortune Magazine listed Franzese as number 18 on its list of the “Fifty Most Wealthy and Powerful Mafia Bosses”.
Franzese was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $14.7 million in restitution on the federal charges, agreeing to sell his assets including a mansion in Old Brookville, New York, the Miami Gold production company, and use proceeds from the Knights of the City film.
Franzese had claimed that at the height of his career, he generated up to $8 million per week. In 1986, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison on conspiracy charges, released in 1989, rearrested in 1991 for a parole violation, and ultimately released in 1994.
During the 1970s, he began to enter the world of legitimate business and by the mid 1980s Franzese had a stronghold on various businesses such as car dealerships, leasing companies, auto repair shops, restaurants, nightclubs, a contractor company, movie production and distribution companies, travel agencies and video stores.
In July 2020 , he appeared in the Fear City: New York vs The Mafia Netflix docuseries. Franzese released an autobiographical biopic, God The Father, in 2014, which was released in theaters across 20 cities in the United States.
Franzese had initially believed that he had been adopted by John after his mother divorced Frank Grillo , who Franzese thought to be his biological father. Michael says he had gone by the name “Michael Grillo” until he was 18 years old. However, it was later discovered that John, already married with three children, had gotten the 16-year-old Capobianco, a cigarette girl at the Stork Club in Manhattan, pregnant with Michael, so Capobianco married Grillo to avoid having a scandal surrounding having a child out of wedlock. After the mob allowed John to divorce his first wife, Grillo disappeared, and he married Capobianco.
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