The Rich, RICO and The Godfather

 

Remember The Godfather? Don Vito Corleone was ruthless, but he had a good heart and a sense of fair play. Italian immigrants were treated unfairly in America and called Wops, Dagos, Greaseballs. The Mafia took root and grew in America, so people could make a living. The way Don Corleone worked with the five families is the same way Jeffrey Epstein worked with the Elite.

 

Networks like the Mafia or Jeffrey Epstein’s Cabal never go out of fashion. It’s a very tribal undertaking when you think about it. To get anywhere in this world, you have to build your own network. Jeffrey Epstein was the ultimate connector. He collected people. He curried favors among rich and powerful people across industries and sectors: law, government, banking, academia, science and technology, royalty, entertainment.

 

He made instant introductions between people who thought they were too important to go through channels.

 

The litany of people beholding to Epstein blurs the distinction between conservative and liberal, democrats and republicans. Political affiliations are cast asunder when high stakes involve money, power, sex. Many of the Elite who’ve been identified in the Epstein files claim they did not know Epstein was engaged in the sex trafficking of underage children. No whispers. Tête-à-tête gossip. Persistent rumors.

 

Really?

 

In The Godfather, we meet Amerigo Bonasera, an undertaker and a good man. As an Italian immigrant, he came to America and played by the rules. Then two boys savagely beat his daughter when she resisted their sexual advances. She suffered a broken jaw and was permanently disfigured. The two punks got off with a suspended sentence because they were from wealthy families.

Seeking justice, Amerigo Bonasera comes to Don Corleone for help. Don Corleone arranges for his goombahs to brutally beat the two punks, intentionally not killing them, leaving them with grave injuries, so they suffer the way the young woman had suffered.

 

Cù duna pì primo, duna a’ncarzari, cu duna d’appressu duna cu tuttu u versu. Those who cause harm first, can expect greater harm in return.

 

Don Corleone empowered working-class Italians. Italian boys growing up in Brooklyn and the Bronx learned to become Mafiosi by imitating him. While the 1970s blockbuster film was a romanticized ideal of the Mafia, this crime syndicate did end up controlling loansharking, money laundering, gambling, the unions, drugs and the garbage industry. Not bad for a bunch of Wops who had been shut out of the conventional paths to power and glory in America.

 

The true meaning of the word Mafia is Arabic, and means stone, refuge. These people took care of one another.

The RICO Act was created in 1970 to target the leaders of organized crime, specifically the Mafia, because it had become too powerful, pervasive, and corrupt. Many members of Mafia crime families were indicted under the RICO laws. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act was designed to destroy organized crime by targeting its leaders rather than its foot soldiers. It focused on murder, bribery and fraud committed by low-level members doing the dirty deeds to establish a pattern of racketeering activity that implicated the Capodecina (head of ten) and Caporegime (head of the regime).

It was guilt by association.

 

RICO resulted in the successful conviction of The Lucchese crime family, the Bonanno crime family, and The Gambino crime family. John Gotti and Frank Locascio were convicted under the RICO Act and received life sentences. Both men died in prison. Four other members of the Gambino family (Capo Ronald Trucchio, Terry Scaglione, Steven Catallono, and Anthony Mucciarone) also succumbed to RICO statutes.

 

Joseph Massino, boss of the Bonanno crime family, broke omerta and ratted on those who know to avoid getting the death penalty. He lived the rest of his life incognito in the Federal Witness Protection Program. New York crime families were not the only casualties of RICO. The Chicago Outfit ( known as Chicago Mafia) also took a RICO hit.

 

Originally intended to target the Mafia, RICO was expanded to be used against all types of corrupt organizations. Several members of the Puerto Rican street gang Latin Kings have been convicted of RICO offenses. The Key West Police Department in Florida was declared a criminal enterprise under RICO statues. A far right terrorist group The Order was convicted of racketeering and conspiracy charges.

 

Other noteworthy RICO prosecutions include financier Michael Milken, Osama bin Laden in absentia and al-Qaeda, Trump University, and most recently P.Diddy. In the case of Sean “Diddy” Combs, he was found not guilty of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking under RICO. He was, however, found guilty on two lesser counts of transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution.

 

While RICO has been applied to a broad range of illegal activities, including drug dealing, money laundering, counterfeiting, fraud, extortion and influence peddling, increased weight has been accorded to sex trafficking. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) and its subsequent iterations have been bolstered using RICO to prosecute sex traffickers. The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 further amended federal law to expand the scope of prosecuting sex trafficking enterprises.

RICO is now used to target entire criminal enterprises involved in sex trafficking rather than just individual perpetrators like Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Epstein relied on an inner circle of people who enabled his criminal activities for over twenty years. A coterie of workers made up the organizational infrastructure that included Epstein’s personal lawyer Darren Indyke; Epstein’s accountant Richard Kahn; Epstein’s financial adviser Harry Beller; and Epstein’s executive assistant Lesley Groff. There were many others. And they need to be prosecuted under the RICO statutes.

 

Among the Elite identified in the Epstein files, many of them continued to associate with Epstein, even after his crimes were revealed. With each passing day, the list grows longer and takes on greater ramifications. Here is the list of people named, thus far.

 

And it’s guilt by association.

 

Admittedly, the Mafia knew they were breaking the law. They didn’t put things in writing. They didn’t discuss business on the phone. They were careful about where, when, and how they met. Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, capo of the Genovese crime family, feigned mental illness and shuffled through the streets of Greenwich Village wearing a bathrobe. He covered his mouth when he spoke, so his words would not be picked up by surveillance.

There is an old Italian proverb: Chi parla poco sbaglia. Immagina chi parla molto. One who speaks little makes mistakes. Imagine the one who speaks a lot.

 

Unlike the working-class Mafia who knew they were breaking the law, the Elite think they are above the law. The Elite put things in writing and contributed mightily to the six million documents that comprise the Epstein files, leaving an electronic tail longer than a comet.

 

Don Corleone would say these people are stupid, thick in the head. He would say if these are the people who are running our country, and making decisions globally, then we are in deep trouble. It is why the American dream doesn’t work for working-class people like Amerigo Bonasera. And it’s why the Mafia took matters into their own hands.

 

I miss Don Vito Corleone. I wonder what he would say about Epstein and Maxwell, two sicko pervs, who regularly visited schools like the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, seeking tween and teen girls that could be pimped to wealthy old white men.

 

I wonder what Don Corleone would say about the people who continued to do business with Jeffrey Epstein, enabling him to continue trafficking young girls. Some of these people gave Epstein free legal advice so he could repair his tarnished image. Some sought advice about dating and how to deal with accusations of sexual harassment. Others shared insider information. And all of dem put dees things in writing!

 

Il sole siciliano ti ha cotto il cervello? Has the Sicilian sun cooked your brain?

 

It’s a major mistake to think the Epstein scandal is only one more attempt by the Left to oust Trump. Trump is only a symptom of the widespread corruption of the Elite across political spectrums on both sides of the aisle. All of those who associated with Epstein after he had become a registered sex offender most certainly knew what he was doing, and, by their continued association with him, became complicit in his crimes.

 

Where is Don Corleone when we need him now, more than ever, to even the playing field?

Countless young women and girls were victimized. There is a mounting body count of both the living and the dead. For America to turn away makes the entire nation complicit in the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his Cabal. Justice must be served. Britain has arrested the former Prince Andrew and Norway has charged a former prime minister. The United States must open a wide-scale investigation under the RICO laws.

 

The Rich, RICO and The Godfather is an essay in my collection NOTES FROM THE WORKING-CLASS.