Italian Authorities Seize $1.7 Billion in Real Life ‘Godfather’ Case

Italian authorities have taken control of $1.76 billion from a Sicilian construction company believed to have ties to organized crime in Corleone.

The Corleone name became synonymous with the Italian Mafia thanks to the Francis Ford Coppola classic film “The Godfather” and its two sequels. 

Unlike the “Godfather” fictional Coleones, the real-life Mafia family appears less interested in gambling enterprises and more interested in winning contracts of – drum roll please – honest businessmen.

From the New York Post:

Investigators say the infiltration of construction contracts, thanks to mobsters working inside local governments or the connivance of corrupt politicians, provides a lucrative income to the Mafia.

Aided by turncoats, prosecutors have put many of the Corleone clan’s top bosses, including longtime fugitives, in prison. Mainland-based crime syndicates have eclipsed the weakened Sicilian Mafia in influence in international drug trafficking, but corruption and extortion still enrich the Sicilian Mafia.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com