Ex-Captain for Mob Seized in L.A. on Fraud Charges

A former captain for the New York-based Colombo crime family was arrested in Los Angeles this week for violating his federal probation and will be charged with bilking local landlords of rents on upscale dwellings and with other frauds, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said Thursday.

Michael Franzese, 40, was arrested Wednesday on charges that he violated the terms of his five-year probation stemming from his conviction on tax and racketeering charges, Reiner said. Federal authorities plan to return him to Brooklyn.

Franzese--whose book, “Quitting the Mob,” is to be released in January--had been under surveillance by the organized crime section of the district attorney’s office since 1989, Reiner said, when he was released from Boron Federal Penitentiary in San Bernardino County and moved to Los Angeles.

“Whenever we have Eastern mobsters coming out here we track them,” Reiner said.

“It is not possible for them to go through a day without committing a crime.”

While in Los Angeles, Reiner said, Franzese used fake collateral to obtain loans from at least one bank and one individual and had bilked a series of landlords out of as much as $13,000 a month in rents. He was arrested at a rented home in Bel-Air, Reiner said.

Three other men identified by Reiner as Mafia-connected have been arrested in Los Angeles during the last two years under similar circumstances, the district attorney said. He would not speculate, however, on whether the arrests indicate that organized crime is gaining ground in Southern California.

Reiner said Franzese is the stepson of Colombo family underboss John (Sonny) Franzese.