Michael Franzese on Bribing Manuel Noreaga $50K a Month to Launder Money (Part 10)

well at one point you were actually paying Noriega correct what for exactly well we were we were use in Panama as we had a compound in Panama when I was in the gas business and the reason we chose Panama because it was a country that Noack had no extradition between Panama and the United States if we ever had to go there for any reason I never looked at that that would be an asylum for me but my partner Larry hi Rizzo did and we were actually paying off norio Noriega so that we can maintain that compound and be assured that if we had to seek asylum there we wouldn't have any problems and it didn't work out that way for I original but we also were using Panamanian companies to run our gas business with because you know a Panamanian company at that time we only needed a company to have a bank account and a Panamanian company at that time had bearer stocks so you didn't have to fill out a lot of papers if you held the stock you own the company so it was very simple we had like 18 Panamanian companies how much did you pay Noriega total I you know I it was really dealt through IR is Owen and Noriega but we were paying him upwards of 50 grand a month mmm right I just interviewed uh Jorge Valdez you know who he is no I don't think so well he was one of the big drug traffickers during the 70s and 80s he's a Cuban guy that was affiliated with the Colombians got it and at one point he had a plane that you know was filled with drugs that had crashed in Panama and you know he was arrested and he was actually tortured by Noriega mhm and then later on he said how he ended up being locked up in the same prison as Noriega and he said how great it was to actually see this guy you know locked up later on the u.s. actually ended up invading Noriega and then locking him up how did you feel when you heard you know years later by what happened in Auriga well how about how do I feel when I walk into the same prison and here I'm in the yard inthere here he is in this cell right in front of me looking like a monkey in a cage with his low orange suit I walked out to him and I said you know do you remember me you don't look at stuff I used to look with that military uniform and didn't say a word to me or anything like that but Noriega a bad guy well he wasn't bad with us but everything that we heard about him yeah I mean look I never was in Panama never visited I never had to go there so I can't speak you know personally about the experience but from what I understand he was he was a bad guy yes and you guys actually bribed politicians quite a bit we did yeah okay cuz I guess at one point well in order to get the gas business going you'd have to keep bribing politicians to get all these licenses and everything else like that we paid them off to get me in particular paid off so we can get licenses to collect the tax you had to have a license as a wholesaler to collect the tax now would it just simply be a political contribution or is it much more stealthy in terms of how you get him the money it was well we did a lot of political contributions at the time for a lot of the heavyweights in New York but there was more to that there was envelopes but there was envelopes well as the most you were given what's the most you've ever given a politician under the table for me at one shot it was 25 grand okay and back 25 which was significant money right and I guess but again it's that that's at one shot and a lot of times that was consistent right and I guess at one point the mob controlled all the security guards you unions that's correct where all the I guess in nine nuclear power plants all the security guards were controlled by the mob yeah I was actually with fella by name of Danny Cunningham that was my Union I control that and you know I don't know if you know this but at the time I don't know if it's changed when a nuclear power plant was shut down you had to have security there for years after it was shut down so we had security gods basically around there doing nothing and getting paid but it was a great deal I bet

Channel: djvlad

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Id: X4dJlCq4_-s

Length: 4min 39sec (279 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 25 2020