Jewelry King Trax NYC EXPOSES How the Powerful Steal from You

➡ The article is a conversation between two individuals discussing the value of gold, the state of the U.S. economy, and the potential impact of unchecked spending. They express concern about the U.S. currency not being backed by gold reserves and the potential for inflation. The conversation also touches on personal experiences with theft and success, and the importance of investing in tangible assets like gold. The speaker recommends American Hartford Gold as a reliable source for purchasing physical gold and silver.
➡ The speaker discusses their past in exploiting a tax loophole in the gas business, using multiple companies to collect tax without paying it to the government. They also express concern about widespread corruption and theft within the government, citing examples of misused funds. The speaker believes that this corruption has worsened in recent years due to social media and a lack of accountability. They argue that the public needs to be more aware of these issues to prevent further financial damage to the country.
➡ The speaker expresses frustration with political leaders, accusing them of wasteful spending, deceit, and failing to serve the public. They criticize former President Obama’s healthcare initiative and current President Biden’s actions, suggesting they’ve negatively impacted the country. The speaker also questions the competence of Vice President Kamala Harris and expresses support for former President Trump, despite acknowledging his controversial communication style. They argue that the public is often misinformed or uneducated about these issues due to lack of time or misleading media coverage.
➡ The speaker was involved in defrauding the government for eight years, making hundreds of millions for his crime family. Despite the risks, he followed a code of respect, honesty, and honor. He eventually realized his criminal lifestyle was a dead-end and managed to change his life, attributing his transformation to two impactful Bible verses. Today, he is successful, with a family and various ventures, including a podcast and wine business.
➡ The text is a conversation between two people discussing their pasts. One person was part of a mafia family, mentored by Joe Colombo, and became involved in the family business after his father was sentenced to prison. He eventually left the life after meeting his wife, who influenced him to change his ways. The other person runs a jewelry business and discusses the importance of trust and support within his team.
➡ The text is a conversation between two individuals discussing their lives, work, and perspectives. One person is in the jewelry business and offers the other a choice of gold chains. They also discuss the importance of hard work, blessings, and finding the right partner for a lasting marriage. The conversation ends with an invitation to join a community aimed at self-improvement and personal growth.

Well, it’s going to be very interesting if Trump does go into Fort Knox and we see how much actually we have in gold reserves. Right. I hope he does. Even if they have all, you know, I think it’s $700 billion worth. It’s not even a drop in the bucket to support the currency that we have. Right. It doesn’t even add up. Yeah. I mean, I’ve had a lot of people steal from me as well, in gold and pinching gold my whole life. And I was very naive like the public is now. I would think that nobody would steal and then come into somebody’s living room and look them in the face.

I thought that nobody would do that, you know, but they do. I just wanted the thieving to stop before I understood people’s capacity to steal. I would think, oh, this guy’s a trustworthy guy, or this guy’s this. But they were robbing me left and right, and I struggled for many years because of that. You seem like a very blessed person. You’ve got a family. You made it to this age successful. You’ve got your pomegranate wine, you’ve got it all, it seems like to me, you know, what’s the sauce here? You know, like, how did you pull it off without.

You know, you’ve seen people’s lives be destroyed. I have many people. Divorce, drugs, jail, death, and some other tragedy. Anything you want to share with us on that end? Well, listen, that’s just. That’s just life. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another sit down with Michael Francis. Hope everybody is doing well. All is very good, very blessed on this end. As always, my friends, I give all the praise, honor, glory, and thanksgiving to our God for that. A very interesting guest today. You know, you don’t always have to have a celebrity or somebody in the media or somebody in the limelight or an ex cop or an ex FBI agent or somebody of that caliber.

On. Sometimes you just want somebody that’s done something with their life and has something to share. And this young man that I have on, he’s very successful today. As a matter of fact, he’s in the jewelry business in New York, downtown in Manhattan, in the Jewelry Exchange. A lot of competition down there. Young man started out when he was 18 years old. He’s now 38 years old. Past 20 years, he’s really made a success of himself. He was actually in the movie Uncut Gems. I don’t know if any of you saw that movie. Great film. But he was, you know, one of the jewelry guys in there.

But built a great business. But he has a lot to say and, you know, very encouraging when you see somebody start out young. He at one time was going in the wrong direction. Fortunately, he had a good father at home, straightened his head out, went in the right direction, really made something of himself. So he’s got a lot to share. And people, you should listen to this. You know, you don’t have to, like I always say, listen to somebody that’s made it and that, you know, is a celebrity or somebody of that caliber or has a real story to tell.

But this is a very interesting. I call him a young man, old enough to be his dad, who I think has something very valuable to share. So without any further delay, here, here’s my good friend. I’m going to call him by his first name, Max. So, Max. Hey, Mike. Thank you for having me. It’s been amazing place. Appreciate it. You’re a very interesting guy. Thank you. You go back 20 years in the jewelry business out of nothing, nowhere. You got some good celebrity clients, I understand. Yeah. And you’ve been in that great movie, Uncut Gems. Yep.

All right, so where do you want to begin? Well, listen, I mean, you know, I’ve built my business around gold, which did wonders for me. And, you know, before we were talking, you mentioned that you were, you know, you had some experience with gold. I mean, you’ve been around for a long, long time. Did you ever put gold away or did you invest your money? How did you get around? I did put gold away. I did invest in it, because I looked at it this way. It’ll go up and down, but it’ll always have a value, no matter what.

It’s not like a stock that could crash. Gold will always have a value. Precious metals, but mostly gold. You know, things changed here in the United States when gold wasn’t supporting the currency anymore. Right. That was a big deal. And that’s why we’re having a lot of huge issues now, because, you know, the uncontrolled spending, there was no accounting for it. And that’s what they’re doing now with the Doge and coming up with the trillions of missing dollars. Well, it’s going to be very interesting if Trump does go into Fort Knox and we see how much actually we have in gold reserves.

Right. I hope he does. Even if they have everything that they’re looking for, even if they have all, you know, I think it’s $700 billion worth. It’s not even a drop in the bucket to support the currency that we Have. You know, my friends, I’ve seen quite a bit in my life. I know what it is to have money. I know what it is to have power. I know what it is to have control. Not only in my business, but over people. And let me tell you this. Wall Street, Washington, they play the same games as we did on the Street.

Make no mistake about that. They make the rules. They cash in. And regular people like us, they’re left holding the bag. Our debt out of control. The dollar, it’s losing value by the day. Don’t let anybody tell you any differently in the market. It’s rigged for the people at the top. That’s right. You don’t need a crystal ball to see where this is all heading. So what do you do? You take control. You protect what’s yours. That’s why I turn to American Hartford Gold. They help people like you and me get into something real, physical. Gold and silver.

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$15,000. All you got to do is call 866-703-5957 or text CAPO to 65532. Listen, times are tough. We know that. But you don’t have to get played by the big guys. Be tougher than them. Be smarter. Call American Hartford gold today at 866-703-5957 or text CAPO. CAPO to 65532 or you can click the link in the description below. People, this is an offer you can’t afford to refuse, right? It doesn’t even add up because, you know, a company like Amazon, I think Amazon by itself is $2 trillion. That’s one U.S. company. Imagine all the property and all of the stocks and everything in the United States and you’re talking about everything.

You’re talking about your home and this and that valued in gold. And there’s only $700 billion to value it. So all of those experiences that you probably experienced over your lifetime, the increase in Evaluation in property that people can’t afford a home, or the crazy stock values that went up for the number of the past 30 years or so where people could have invested a couple of thousand bucks and had crazy returns. All of that, in my theory personally, is fueled by out of control money printing, of course. And where we’re at now is that you either going to continue to print vast amounts or.

And then the currency is going to eventually inflate away into nothingness or you stop printing and you take a massive financial hit. And that’s why I kind of stuck between the. The United States kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. And you know, they’re trying to do something about it with Doge and things like that, cut the spending. That’s why Elon Musk jumped in there. That’s what he says. Yeah, but if they don’t, if they don’t, if they fail at that task, gold might be back as a big deal as it has been for the thousands of years.

That’s kind of something that I teach my clients so that they know when they’re buying a gold chain, they’re not buying a piece of luxury, they’re buying something that can pay for itself and then give them dividends off a chain. Max. It’s just a matter of time if we don’t get a hold of the spending. Right. And all this. Listen, there’s no surprise to me, all this fraud and all the kickbacks from the wasteful money. Right. You’re printing money. It’s. What is it, you know? Right. What’s standing behind this? The good faith of the United States of America.

Well, that good faith is becoming less and less and less meaningful as we just keep printing more money and wasting it everywhere else. Right. So let me ask you, when you were almost. You were in the gas business or something like that, and you were making money, exactly how like you were. We’re defrauding the government out of tax. Right. Just. Just the tax. Right, Just the tax, yeah. Right. So how Profit. Right. That’s interesting. I mean, that’s, you know, it’s, it’s not the worst person to defraud it on all on a scale of things, I suppose, you know, but the whole government’s being defrauded left and right.

But stealing is stealing nonetheless. Well, the government is being defrauded from ineffectiveness and just. It’s being prostituted. It’s not even being defrauded. It’s not that people are just ineffective. They put people into positions that have no business acumen whatsoever. Right. That’s number one. Plus they’re corrupt to begin with, many of them. So how did you find this loophole to exploit and how long did you exploit it for? We did it for almost eight years. Right. But it’s basically. Look, the government normally is well behind people that have business experience, knowledgeable, and, you know, we just devised a scheme to collect the tax and not pay the government the tax.

Right. And we would run. I had 18 different show companies that were licensed to collect the tax. Right. And it would take the government 10 months to a year before they’d come down on a company that wasn’t paying the tax. Right. So we would just close the doors and move on to the next life, different part of town. Right. So they couldn’t figure it out. They couldn’t. Yeah. It was somewhere lost in the paperwork in the system. Oh, well, companies closed. Well, they say, you know, that we’re going to audit you. We’re going to. And that takes a month or two months if we.

You write them a letter back. Okay, we’ll comply. Comply. You can use their bullshit against them, essentially. Right, Totally. And how did you figure this out exactly? Did someone put you on or. Yeah, it was my partner that, you know, said, I think we can do something like this. A guy approached me and he said, with your help and, you know, your knowledge and actions, we can make it work. Oh, wow. We did. Right. So you, you. That’s a crazy loophole to exploit. And so you collect it from the gas stations. They. They think they’re paying their tax collected from the gas station or wholesalers that had to buy it from you with the tax included.

Right. So how many. Yeah, The. The question becomes, you know, in today’s government, how many people are stealing on that level or beyond that? Well, it’s all car beyond. Right. It’s all coming out. When Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton, got 70 million, $80 million for Haiti and spends $9 million on a house and $3 million on a wedding, and nobody knows where the balance is. Right. This is commonplace. This has been happening left and right everywhere. It’s. It’s just, you know, the. The average person is naive to how people can steal. Maybe in your background, you understood that.

You saw thieves your whole life, I guess, right? My whole life, yeah. Yeah. People, you know, who don’t want to work and want to take money, essentially. And you were able to do that. Let me tell you something, too. Stealing money is a lot of work also. Right. I had a big operation. Yeah. I Had a lot of people working for me, and it was a complicated scheme to make it work. So. Right. We worked. We just worked illegally. Well, on the scale of stealing, I mean, what you were doing is at, you know, stealing is stealing.

Let’s just keep it real. Right. You would. Absolutely. 100. All right. But what you were doing. What you were doing was more or less in the most grayest area in the. Between the black and the white, you know, the government, gas taxes. They would have took that money and burnt it anyway. They would have wasted it, printed it, sent it over. Hillary. Hillary’s daughter, who the hell knows? Whatever. Yeah. I mean, I’ve had a lot of people steal from me as well, in gold and pinching gold my whole life. And I was very naive like the public is now.

I would think that nobody would ever do something. Nobody would steal and then come into somebody’s living room and look them in the face. I thought that nobody would do that, you know, but they do. And if only the public would understand that these people are a den of thieves, life would be a little bit easier. And that’s, you know, you don’t want to throw a blanket over everybody. Right. Obviously, we have a lot of good, honest, decent people working, two or three working in government. What we had in the past four years is a corrupt administration.

Very corrupt. Just the past four years. Well, for sure. In the past four years, it’s become, I think, with. With social media. Right. The level of corruption has been to a degree I’ve never witnessed before. I was on the street for over 20 years, so I know what corruption is. Yeah. I’ve never witnessed so. Something so out there. Right, Right. People don’t even care anymore. They. They don’t. People get on video and say something one day and lie about it the next day, and they don’t even care. Well, thieves get bolder and bolder. Right. You know what I’m saying? So the thieving started when they went off the gold reserve in 1971.

Right. And you know, at first you’re like, I wonder if they’ll notice if I take this. I wonder if they notice if I take that check. Then it. The. The thieving really went down in the first Iraq war. Right. So that was the Republicans stealing. They saw the contracts. People got rich ripping off the government. Then Clinton came in, and I don’t know what ceiling he was doing, what he got away with over there, I really don’t know. But. And, you know, they had surpluses, so they’re printing money here, and they’re pretending they have a surplus, so on and so forth.

And then 9, 11 hit. And George Bush Jr. And Dick Cheney, they. Dick Cheney saw that opportunity to go for the big score. So they went in Iraq and washed huge amounts of money. Iraq, Afghanistan, took about trillions of dollars. You’re talking about enough to change this country over four or five times. I don’t even know. And then Covid was the big heist, you know, so you’re talking about the gas. Are you talking about that? I mean, the heists in front of people’s faces on a scale that aren’t imagining. You can’t even imagine. That’s why I was kind of going crazy when you were talking to Bill Maher.

I was watching that podcast and, you know, he’s talking about a bunch of bull. And you’re trying to tell him, you know, Trump this and Trump gives you a chance or like to. To. To put things back together. He’s like, yeah, I understand. He’s your guy and this and that. It’s not the case to me. I’m sorry for my language, but it’s. The people don’t understand the scale of the theft of the trillions of dollars. And a small little historical ch turned his head and the bullet went this way. And Elon Musk walked in there to do doge that we have a chance to even reconcile that before the country goes bankrupt.

I wish they would understand that. Well, you know what, Max? It’s. You have to understand sometimes the mentality of people. Very difficult, right? Like people, you’re a Trump supporter. You drank the Trump Kool Aid. You. Right? I tell people, listen, I’m 74 years old, right? I’m drinking no Kool Aid. I have one hero in my life. It’s Jesus Christ. That’s it. Nobody else. I respect people I looked up. I admire people that have accomplished things. But Trump isn’t doing anything for me personally, right? Other than what he’s doing for my country. And I’ve become a recipient of that, of the success that we hope he had.

Right? And what people don’t understand, if. If the guy is up there trying to rescue the country, right? Rescue the country by getting to the bottom of the fraud and the waste and the abuse of taxpayer money. Right? Remember, you pay your taxes. Yeah, I pay mine, Right. I didn’t cause this country to go $36 trillion. No, neither did you. Neither did any innocent person out there paying their taxes, trying to make a living. It’s the irresponsible people in government that have done this. Right. And for anybody to be upset that we are reigning them in.

Why don’t you tell that to Bill Maher? Because I wish, I wish I would have heard. I did in a way, you know, but you go with the flow of the conversation. I wasn’t looking to get into an argument. Sure. You know, but you know, anybody that’s against that? Why? Well, maybe a guy like Bill Maher who pays his taxes, lives in a luxury place and doesn’t feel like other people feel. Sure. Imagine. But imagine, Imagine struggling to go and put food on your table, working two jobs, working 10 hours a day and get food on your table and then find out your taxpayer money is going to pay some inmate to have transsexual surgery.

DEI in Afghanistan, wherever the hell they’re sending this money, you. You got to be outraged. Yeah. For people to be against that is very suspicious. Yeah. Why would you be against Trying to rein in this crazy spending and waste of taxpayer dollars. Right. Whether it be Biden did this. Biden, great. I love you. No, I mean, it’s. It’s completely ridiculous. You know, I mean, on the left side of things, when I was a kid, you know, it’s a. Because when I was a kid, I used to think Obama’s a great president and you know, healthcare.gov and all this other.

And then I realized when he dropped healthcare.gov and it didn’t even work when they opened it up and you have the power of the federal government and you’re trying to do a health care and like you’re waiting two terms. It was like his second term and they’re finally ready to reveal this Obamacare, whatever it might be. And the web, when the website didn’t work, when he dropped it, I realized it was all the scales kind of fell from my eyes. Total bs. Yeah. He pulled all over everybody’s eyes with that. Yeah. He just pushed it through.

There was nothing to it. Yeah. It was pretending that. I mean, you know, I’m saying. Then I realized, like, you know, I would think there’s no way it’s a president of the United States federal government. This is the real deal. That this guy’s just sitting here and pretending to be working or pretending to be working on something. And remember, your premiums are not going to go up. You still maintain your same doctor. It was all. He doesn’t even know what the. He was talking. That’s really what it was. It wasn’t even so much of a. Of a lie as it was, you know, Obama would sit in A room.

And he’d be like, this is the idea. And he’d be like, yeah, we’re going to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you want us to do? Yeah. Build a website. Okay. $2 million. Give me half my million. Give me this, Give me that. And nothing ever happened with that. And then he ran to Google to do it. Give him a pass. It was a lie. Right. Plain and simple. And if he didn’t investigate it to the point that he should have and it was going to impact the American people in the wrong way, it’s a lie.

Right. The same way Biden. Oh, Biden wasn’t responsible. Biden was responsible. He took the oath. He became president. And there’s no excuse for him to be a puppet. He’s a bad guy. He was totally corrupt. He robbed this country. As vice president. Yeah. He was treasonous. Treason. And he. And he. And he sold us out at the border, both north and south and everything else that he did. He killed people in Afghanistan. He’s got blood in his hands here in the United States. People that came in that were murderers and murdered people in our own country.

You’re treasonous when you do that. Yeah. Worse than any mob guy ever knew on the street. Exactly. You took an oath to benefit people, and look what you did. He should be ashamed of himself. The guy and anybody that supported him should be the same in the administration. People on the street that voted him, they don’t know any better. You can’t even hold these people responsible. They’re out there working. They hear something. They don’t watch Fox News. They watch msnbc. Oh, he’s a great guy. So they vote. They don’t know any better. You can’t get mad at the people.

You get mad at the people that support him in office, the media that lied about him for four years. Okay, Harris. Another despicable human being. I’m sorry. How do you have the audacity to run for president? You couldn’t even be a schoolteacher. Right? Yeah. No, I mean, knowledge of running this country. These are bad people. Right? Right. Yeah. I mean, I don’t know where they could get the support. And you know, that delusion that’s. That permeates you, say, you know, the average person, they shouldn’t be blamed, but I think that they should. If you think. If you think Kamala, something’s.

Something’s wrong with you. If you think a Kamala would have been a competent person to manage the world’s problems today, someone who’s just pretending and telling you what you want to hear. Okay. We’re this, we’re that. People on the street, you’re just misinformed and uneducated. They don’t look you. You have the luxury. You own a company, you got time. You can research accounted a, you can do your work. Yeah, these poor people are working eight, ten hours a day. You’re right. They don’t have time to do all of this. They hear something, the news, their family says, oh, she’s a good person.

Biden’s a good person. And they vote. It’s hard to blame people that don’t have the time to really look into. Blaming doesn’t do much for anything for anybody anyway. You know, to be honest, sometimes it does, because if you can blame the people and hold them accountable while they’re doing this stuff, then you can get some correctness. I believe Trump should go after every one of them. Yeah. Hold them accountable. Biden’s never going to jail. He’s his own special counsel said he pardoned himself. He pardoned his whole family before. Before he left. Do you hear the mainstream media talking about that? No.

No. Why? They never talk about anything that’s. That’s in reality pardoned people that were never charged, never indicted, going back 11 years for crimes known or unknown. Right. That’s why you need. That’s insane. I know. Somebody said to me, and you, I’ll pardon you for anything you did in the last 10 years. I’d say, what for? I didn’t want anything. But if there’s something, oh, yeah, okay, I’ll take it. Because maybe there’s something I did that it’s shady that I wanted. The best one is that they pardoned Fauci. That is. I’ll tell you what they should do with Fauci.

Right. Remember, far pardons are only good. What would they do in the mob in Foucher? Pardons are only good on the federal level. Yeah. The state level. On the state, yeah. What’s taking so long on that? Who knows? You know, the government doesn’t work quick. What Trump is doing now is like, you never see anything like this in your life. Right. The speed at which he’s moving to make some, you know, sense. He’s also in a dangerous area. I mean, he does a lot of wild stuff. So I hope he pulls through and he doesn’t give him ammunition to attack him.

You know, he already needless things like Trump coin and whatever he already is. I’ll tell you what he’s making him, in my view, anyway, making a Mistake. He’s rightfully letting go all of these public people that work for the government. Right. But I think his attitude towards it is not good because these people. Yeah. Are going to vote one day. Right. I mean, it’s getting people out of their jobs. There’s gotta be a. Trump sometimes doesn’t have a soft delivery. He doesn’t know how to get things across. I think he would have been a president in the second term had he toned down some of his rhetoric.

Right. But I understand him. He’s a New Yorker. We’re New Yorkers. We go after people. He is who he is. And, you know, there’s benefits and there’s detriments in his personality on the way he communicates. Some people will never just stand behind him on that end. No. And he puffs up a lot of the same stuff. You know, my crowd or. Or this time, you know, I. I won by this many points. It was a beautiful victory. It was a this, it was a that. Pats himself on the back. Yeah. And, you know, that’s not an inspiring Gettysburg Address, but I don’t.

I personally don’t really care about that. I just wanted the. The thieving to stop. You know, like, it’s hard to get ahead in this country for one reason. You know, you’re talking about this. The year 2025 is a technical, technologically advanced civilization. We’re at over here with AI and everything. There shouldn’t be a reason for somebody to be sleeping in a cardboard box in the street unless something’s wrong. It’s just, you know, a lot of theft beyond the scale of what people understand. For me, in the diamond district and in the jewelry business, before I understood the people’s capacity to steal, you know, I would think, oh, this guy’s a trustworthy guy or this guy’s this.

But they were robbing me left and right, and I struggled for many years because. Because of that. So that’s really of like, you know what I wanted to explain. I mean, you were in the business, you were defrauding the government. They couldn’t catch up to you for a very long time. Eight years. And how much money were you able to make across that time? Several hundred million. Several hundred million dollars. And you, you know, let me clarify. Not personally made for the family. It’s several hundred million dollars for the, for the Colombo family, was it? Or.

Yeah. And what was the. The split there? Or if you’re allowed to say, I don’t know. Well, I mean, it was one point in time. I was giving my boss. $2 million a week. Significant money. Right. And you were never tempted to say, you know, what was your boss doing for you that you’re giving out 2 million? It’s part of life. It’s just the way it is. That’s the code you give back to the family. Yeah, that’s the code. So you, you really stuck to the code. What are the tenements of the code I did during that life? Right.

Yeah. Listen, you’re. You’re respectful to one another. You don’t lie, steal, or cheat. Okay? Right. And, you know, you’re honorable in business, but, you know, those, those are the, the rules. But how many people would follow the rules and how many people would get checked on following the rules on that end? Well, listen, I just interviewed a, you know, sat down with a former FBI agent that was right, signed to the Genovese family. There is a squad. And if you listen to some of the, you hear some of the things that he heard on wiretaps and surveillance, you know, objects, people were backstabbing people all the time.

Of course, you know, so. But look, you know, listen, is it any different in government? Is it any different in corporate America? No. The difference on the street is that the consequences are more severe. Right. You could lose your life. Right. You know, you could get hurt. Right. And government is different, you know, and in corporate America, it’s different. And you’re born into this, right? Yeah. So was it a big break when you found that you could defer the government from this tax money? Or that must have been a fantastic eight years, or was it. Well, yeah, I mean.

Yeah, I mean, I had no problem defrauding the government. I thought the government was corrupt, right? So, you know, I thought I could do better with the money than they could. One, number two, you know, we were stealing the tax money, but we were giving people at the pump a break because we were sharing the money with people at the pump. Our gas was cheaper, but that’s good. At least you did that, so. Got some good karma. Had lines outside of our stations all the time. Hey, listen, I mean, you know, you seem like a very blessed person.

You know, I’m. You’ve got a family. You’ve got four kids, you got a household, you got a. A wife, and you made it to this age successful. You’ve got your pomegranate wine, you’ve got your regular wine, you’ve got it all, it seems like to me. And how, you know, what’s the secret sauce here? You know, like, how did you pull it off without, you know, you’ve seen people’s lives be destroyed. I’m sure I have. Many people, yes. You know, divorce, drugs, jail, death and some other tragedy. Anything you want to share with us on that end? Well, listen, that’s just, that’s just life.

We see that everywhere, in every city, in every country around the world. You know, just, we have. About your decision making process. They got you out of all of that and into a podcast with products like pomegranate wine and things like that. Decisions. Is it the proverbs that you have tattooed? You got those in jail, I’m assuming, or. No, I got them outside of jail, but they were two, they were two Bible verses that had a severe, A significant, significant impact on me. Where were they? Proverbs 16, 7. When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, even his enemies are at peace with him.

That’s beautiful. And Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. And this is the important verse. He will make your path straight. Right. So they had a tremendous impact on me in prison and I decided never to forget them. So every morning I remind myself. Wonderful, because you always got to remember where you came from and how good God has blessed you. But, you know, what’s the secret? You know, there’s no secret. It’s just would my case, I realized that the life I was living was a dead end street for me.

At some point I was too high profile. I was indicted seven times, I went to trial five times, arrested 18 times. So how much, how much more am I going to beat them? Actually, I beat them five times on trial, but at some point it’s going to end. I mean, you beat them five trials. It was a jury trial. Yeah, I had four jury, I had five juries. I mean, listen, you’re a charismatic guy. You’re tall, you’re handsome. I’m sure that played a part in some save the day. Because if you were some creature, they would have locked you up.

I mean, I think that might, might have been it. No, it has nothing. You know, look, no, they never had a real strong, solid case against me. No. You know, remember, when you’re on the street, investigative process is different. Normal investigation, a crime is committed. Right. And they go find out who committed the crime. Right. When you’re on the street, organized crime mafia, they investigate you. Yeah. And try to figure out if you commit a crime. Yeah. So it’s a backwards way of investigation. Right. So they don’t always hit. Right. You know, and so I was fortunate, and then I beat him five times.

But they. They had you on a jury trial. They had you in the box or the witness with this witness stand. I mean, the stress of that must have been enormous, no. Or you play it cool or what? It’s not a question because it’s a. It’s annoying with the lawyers. It’s. Yeah, yeah. Obviously it’s a waste of time because you can’t do anything else right on trial. It’s eight hours a day, you know. Right. Plus, you got to. You got to, you know, prepare for the case every day. I mean, it’s. It’s very time consuming, but stressful.

I don’t know. I mean, my life has been one way. So whether it’s stress or not, I don’t even know. What do you mean your life has been one way? You know, you deal. It all depends on how you deal with things. So I grew up in that situation. I was used to it. It was part of my life. I watched my father. I attended three of his trials. I visited him in prison for 20 years. It was just normal part of my life. So was it any more stressful? You may have more stress than me just on a daily basis doing your business.

Yeah, that I had on the street and you had in a trial for an indictment. I don’t know about that, man. Well, I’ll tell you the stressful part. I’ll tell you the most stressful part of all of it, Right. Standing in front of a jury, right. Waiting to hear one word, guilty or not. So that’s all you want to hear. You want to hear, and then, you know, you’re free. And that for that few moments, it’s stressful. Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah. But other than that. So five times, you’ve been through that and you sat there and you wriggled free.

Five times. What do you celebrate after? Or you go out. Oh, yeah, yeah. It’s a relief. Celebrate relief. And then you go on to the next one. Who did this mural for you right here, if you don’t mind. My great artist. His name is Bowden. Him. Right. And he’s a tattoo artist and obviously a tremendous artist. And he’s got. He did that. But that. Celebrities are the movies I watched my whole life. And that was great. I’ve always been a fan of, you know, Italian culture, period. I’ve been to Italy and to Naples here, there, and, you know, the food, the wine, and whatever it is.

Great country the history is amazing. It’s between Italy and Japan, for me, are two favorite countries. But I never knew the real players and what they were doing. You know, for me, I’m. I’m. I’m not a person who stole. I stole as a kid. I thought committing crimes was great, great idea, until I got caught. Slapped in the face by my father. And then I realized I don’t need to do that. I need to figure out what to do for real, and that I don’t have this weighing on me. You know, father was a good man.

And you finally learned. Yes, that’s right. I mean, that’s what it takes, you know, to wake you up sometimes, because talk doesn’t really work all the time. You know, you yap, yap, yap, and then you go do whatever you want after. But you got a mural of these real deal people. I mean, if I ever, you know, I would run the other way because I don’t want to get caught up in a bunch of. But out of these, you know, like, who’s the. The people that you respected the most? If. Well, there were several. You know, I mean, I knew many of these guys, and some of them were before my time, but they’re the most prominent.

I mean, I think the. The guys that I knew personally and that I respected the most. Joe Colombo. I love Joe. He was a mentor of mine when my father went to prison. Right. Carmine Persico was my boss. I loved him for a while. When I left the life, he wasn’t happy, but. But we had a good relationship during my time. So the first guy is Joe Colombo. He mentored you? Yeah. And he. Was he running a family or what was he head of the Colombo family? Family. All right. He was a boss. And how long has the Colombo family been in operation in the United States or they came from Italy? All the families, they were created as families by Lucky Luciano.

Right. In. In the mid-40s, right. When he created the commission and the families and all of that. So before that, guys were just running around. So Lucky Luciano was in, like, the 30s. 30s, but he created the commission in the early 40, early to mid-40s. That’s when he got everybody together and he organized us into who we. Who was, you know, where did the term made or not made, does that come from him? Is when you take an oath. Yeah, but what. Who started the oath? Tradition. Does that go back to Italy or. Back to Italy? Yeah.

All right, so that goes back to Italy. So Lucky Luciano, he started the commission and he organized the families. I Suppose. But the activity and who’s made and not made, and the oath goes back. But that goes back a long time. Back to Italy. Yeah. For how long in Italy? A couple hundred years. Because in the movies, being the made guy was the big deal. Yeah. Right. Other if you weren’t a made guy, you were a criminal, essentially just somebody out in the street doing whatever. And you had to be Italian to be made. And then you get the protection of everyone else who’s made.

You’re. You’re a group. Right. So you’re saying he’s one of us, like they say, a good fellow. So, so to speak. Right. A friend of ours. Yeah. So you weren’t born. You were born into the. The organization your father made. Yeah, father was a younger boss of the Colombo family all the time. Wow. And then. And then you were made at how old? I was 24. You were 24. So you’re a young guy. Yeah. Pricked your finger or whatever it might be. Yeah, yeah. And then you were in there and I guess that’s that. I mean, I guess that’s how that works.

It’s very interesting, you know, to organize a group of people like that because, you know, I have a jewelry business. I don’t have a corporation. I started my business when I was 18 and I didn’t do it the corporate way. And I like to keep, you know, I have individuals at work for me. I have 60 employees and a team of 60 people. And I find the loyal ones, the honest ones, and I, you know, trying to bring them into a group. And it’s an honest business. It’s a straightforward business. There’s no a thieving of any sort or any criminal activity.

But ultimately it’s a position of trust and you want to be in a group that supports one another. So that’s essentially what that was for you. Well, it was a little more to it. My dad got a 50 year prison sentence. I was going to be a doctor, actually. But when my dad went away for essentially what was a life sentence, the best way to help him out was to become part of his life. Right. And that’s what got me involved. Right. So he went away. Did he die in prison or. Oh, my father was. He did 40 years on the 15.

Wow. And he was paroled or. He was paroled. He got out at the age of 100. Get the. And he passed away during the pandemic at the age of 103. Wow. Yeah. My grandmother died at 101 during the pandemic from that fauci but wow. I mean, what was it like to walk out of prison at a hundred years old? You know, and how did he react when he got out and. Well, he was an old man at that time. Right. He was 100 years old. I mean, was he able to adapt to his new environment at home or wherever he was at? Well, you gotta understand, during that time, my mother died.

You know, family broke up. Right. So he came home to, you know, so just you, essentially? No, I have a brother. Right. He came home too, also, but the family was destroyed. Right. So he was kind of lonely. Right. You know, my dad lived in New York. I’m out here in California. Right. I have a sister and he was living with her for a while. Right. But it was just Sad. Yeah. Do 40 years in prison. What is your life like when you come home at 100 years old? 100 years old? Yeah. That’s still living the rest of your life.

And I mean, you guys got good genes to make it 104, to make it through a. A 50 year prison sentence and get paroled after 40 years. I couldn’t even comprehend that, man. It’s sad. And you would visit him or you talk to him, or how often would you write to your father while he was in there? I didn’t write that much. I visited it. Right, you visited him. Right. At least, you know, initially the visiting was only once a month. So I would go once a month and it got easier and we would go more often, you know, and he went inside for.

I mean, for that type of time, it might have to be a serious violent crime. Supposedly masterminded nationwide string of bank robberies. Right. My father was framed. Right. I wasn’t guilty. Wow. He was framed. He did 40 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Get. Yeah, a lot of people probably are doing it, you know, in this tragic world instead, instead of the criminals and, you know, just to. To put a. A dome over everything that we were saying, you know, I got robbed or I suffered theft and gold and vast losses. And you were, you know, on the other side of that spectrum, you know, with the government and you made money and did you do any good things with that money that you.

No, absolutely. A lot of things. You help a lot of people out. I mean, when it was flowing in like family out, you know, I was, I was good in my neighborhood. You know, we helped out our neighborhood. Quite a lot of us did that. Our neighborhoods were in good shape. This was in the 90s, 80s, 70s and 80s. 70s and 80s. Wow. Yeah. Back Then it was a free for all, you know, and, you know, was I, you know, philanthropy, philanthropist, philanthropist at that point? I can’t say I was that, but I helped my family out.

Obviously. I was pretty generous with people. Right. And I took care of myself, you know. So you had to take a. Go to a low point to open up your eyes. Was that when you were in jail and you became. I met a follower of Christ who. You met that married to him 40 years. And she was a life changing. Right, your wife? Yeah. How did she do? How does she pull that off? How does she influence you? Because she was a good person. Right. And she was 20 years old. Right. And I knew that if I married her and stayed in a life, eventually you’re going to go to jail or get killed.

Right. So why would I bring her into that life Right after I had the experience and I knew what it was all about, so. Right. You know, and she. So you got lucky. I mean, if you didn’t meet this woman. Got blessed, you got blessed. So that’s nice. Okay. There’s no luck. There’s. I suppose you get luck at the craps table. Sure. And life, there’s blessings or there’s heartaches. Right. Too. Right. So, I mean, I mean, you definitely were blessed in that sense. You know what I’m saying? But if you didn’t, where did you meet this woman? I was filming a movie in Florida.

I was producing a movie and she was a dancer in the film. Right. Well, that will do it. But, you know, if you didn’t meet her, you could have went in a different direction. If I didn’t meet her, I’d probably be dead or in prison for the rest of my life. We had a big war in our family at one point and a lot of guys got killed. Wow. Did a lot of damage. And if I was home, I would have been involved in it, no doubt. What was the war over? Leadership. It’s always open. Somebody was trying to take control of the honey pot.

Right. The money’s coming in. Who’s going to be at the top of that? Right. And you pick your side and you pick a side. That’s terrible, man. Yeah, that’s no good. Well, you got lucky. You got the girl blessed. Yeah, you got, you got blessed. You got the girl and the money, the wine, the podcast. Lucky guy. I’m blessed, guy. I’m sorry, man. I keep going back to that. And guess what? There’s one more blessing for you because I did bring something to see your taste in gold chains. Okay. Because, you know, this is my business.

I’m not in the pomegranate business. But you do get to pick a gold link. Okay. So I saw you wearing these chains. You got some chrome hearts or whatever it might be, I don’t know. This is a Cuban link. It’s a flat link right here. Okay. This one is a Franco. It’s a three dimensional. This is some three tone. This is what I wear. I love this chain. Yellow gold, rose gold and white gold. A modified rope Figaro, I call it. What do you think? Well, here’s the deal. I’m going to go away with a piece of jewelry.

You’re going to go away with a bottle of wine. Sure. It’s not bad. What is the link you have on that they gave you? What is this? This is like, it’s called a. A rolo link here. And this is a rope link here. This used to be. I think it’s called a rolo. Yeah. Well, I’m going to let my wife who’s off, her wife’s the boss. I should have brought stuff for the wife is what I should have did. Yes. By the way. But we’re going to do that for my 40th. But all of this that you see the filming and everything, this young lady handles it all.

She’s, she’s a special person and she won’t come on camera, but she’s okay. She’s behind the scenes. This is really beautiful, too. Around my. Yes. So that’s my business. That’s what I do. And I’m very happy that I got a chance to plug in with you guys and hopefully it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a community. Well, when I come to New York, I’m going to come and visit you. Yeah, I’ll definitely show you. That’ll be a big privilege. I’ll show you. Get a picture of what exactly I do. Great. I spent a lot. Listen, I give you a lot of credit.

Thank you. Obviously, you’re blessed. But you worked hard to get there. Sure. And, you know, sometimes the blessings, you don’t make your own blessings, but you work towards them. Yeah. So I did. Well, what do you think of the podcast? Terrific. And I really appreciate you having me in your home. I’ve been watching you for a while. Thank you. And you know, hey, the, the, the thing I would want people to carry over is, you know, that blessing that you were able to pull off for yourself because you really did it and it’s pretty nice to see I owe it all to my God and my wife and just people that supported me and very fortunate.

Very fortunate, I can tell you that. Okay. Blessed. Blessed. All right. And on that, thank you. And really, thank you very much. Yeah, my pleasure. Very nice. Good for business. Well, there again, you know, if you notice, this was more of a conversation. I had questions for him, he had questions for me. I guess he had curiosity with my life. I was certainly interested in his accomplishments and some of his perspective on things. Very interesting to me is that, you know, at 38, he’s still unmarried and he’s still out there looking for the right woman. And I give him credit for that.

You heard what he said. He said, look, I don’t want to be in a relationship. And, you know, then 20 years down the road, it’s over. I want something permanent. So he’s been, you know, I guess, pretty particular. And some of you women out there might say, well, you know, why is he being so particular? Well, that’s just who he is. And that’s not something to demean in any way. I think it’s something that’s fairly admirable. He wants his marriage to be one that’s going to last, last, you know, So I enjoyed his perspective on that and his position.

He also said it’s a little rough finding women out there. And I guess some women say it’s a little rough finding men out there. Well, maybe there’s a matchup someplace. Maybe I can play Cupid. Who knows? But anyway, I really enjoyed his conversation. Very successful guy. I’m going to list his, or I should say, put a link to his company there. If you’re in the jewel, if you’re into jewelry in any way, maybe he’s your guy. He’s got a great online platform, an online website that you can go and choose, choose from. He said he can make anything that you want.

I’m not his partner. I’m not selling for him, but I think he’s entitled to that. I’ll be doing some business with him in the future. You might have heard that during our conversation, so hope you enjoyed it, my friends. And how do I always leave you? Very same way. Never going to change. Be safe. Be healthy. God bless each and every one of you. Your families, your neighborhoods, your communities. And as far as the community is concerned, you should join mine. Michaelfranziese.com family we’ve really had a influx of members. People looking for community, people looking to better themselves, people looking for relationships, people looking to improve their lives in some way, whether it be personally or in business.

This is the platform for you. I promise you that. You’re not going to be disappointed. You get a lot of me, a lot of my involvement in that. I have a great team behind me. We’re putting a number of resources in there, all for your benefit. We’re doing zoom calls, Q and A, having, you know, on site meetings. It’s going to be great for you. I know that. Michaelfrancis.com family join it now, an offer you shouldn’t refuse. And God bless each and every one of you and yes, I’ll see you next time.
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