The richest mafiosi in history. Leaders of large criminal groups of the world (33 photos). Head of the Just Russia faction Sergei Mironov and Olga Radievskaya

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Since the release of the first list of the richest people in the world in 1982, Forbes magazine has included drug lords and gangsters there - since organized crime is part of the global economy, these incomes need to be counted. For example, according to The Guardian, the Calabrian mafia 'Ndrangheta in 2013 enriched itself more than Deutsche Bank and McDonald's combined - by € 53 billion.

Below are the odious figures of the underworld who made millions and billions - Pablo Escobar, Shorty, Al Capone, Tony Salerno and others.

John Gotti

New York Gambino boss John Gotti has received two nicknames from the press. "Teflon Don" - for being invulnerable to justice for a long time. As well as “Don-dandy” for expensive custom-made suits (Brioni for $2,000 and hand-painted silk scarves for $400), elaborate hair, black Mercedes 450 SL and lavish parties.

Growing up in the South Bronx, Gotti joined the Gambino family in the 1950s, one of the powerful gambling, extortion, loansharking and drug syndicates. The US government suspected that on the way to the post of head of the Gambino, Gotti eliminated his predecessor Paul Castellano in 1985. The FBI agent who worked on the Gotti case said that "he was the first don for the media, he never tried to hide that he was a superboss." And his wide lifestyle and external gloss has always provided food for articles in the tabloids.

According to the New York Times, Gotti received between $10 million and $12 million annually, while the Gambino clan earned more than $500 million a year in the 1980s. Justice got to Gotti only in 1992, 10 years later he died in prison.

Shinobu Tsukasa

Shinobu Tsukasa, 74, leads a yakuza clan called the Yamaguchi-gumi. Fortune has listed the Yamaguchi-gumi as one of the five most powerful mafia groups in the world, with an annual profit of $6.6 billion. The Yamaguchi was founded in the port city of Kobe over 100 years ago and has 23,400 members. Most of the income comes from the sale of drugs, as well as gambling and extortion.

Shinobu Tsukasa is the sixth leader of the clan in history. In the 1970s, he was sentenced to 13 years for murder with a samurai sword. In 2005, he was jailed for 6 years for possession of a firearm. In 2015, there was a split in the yamaguchi-gumi. According to the Tokyo Reporter, most of the group remained with Tsukasa, and 3,000 members formed a new clan led by Kunio Inoue.

Michael Franzese

In Fortune's "50 Most Powerful Mafia Bosses" list, Michael Franzese was ranked 18th. Franzese, nicknamed "Don Yuppie", is the son of a bank robber who formed a cartel that was engaged in the release of films of category B, illegal sale of gasoline, car repair and sale scams, and fraudulent loans.

In a week, Michael Franzese received from $ 1 to $ 2 million in income. In 1985, the US government charged him with fraud, stripped him of $4.8 million of assets, and ordered him to pay $10 million for the illegal sale of gasoline through shell companies. After eight years in prison and a $15 million payment, Franzez moved to California and decided to capitalize on his criminal past. He has written two books, the autobiography Blood Covenant and the business advice book I'll Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse, as well as sold the rights to a miniseries about his life to CBS. Now the former mobster lives in a $2.7 million home, drives a Porsche, gives interviews to Vanity Fair and lectures at universities.

Anthony Salerno

In 1986, Fortune magazine published a list of "The 50 Most Powerful Mafia Bosses". The editor-in-chief explained the appearance of the material by the fact that "organized crime is a powerful economic factor." Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno also made the list. The Genovese clan, led by a gangster (300 people), was engaged in racketeering and drugs in New York. According to The New York Times, the clan's influence extended as far as Cleveland, Nevada, and Miami, with interests in construction, loansharking, and casinos. Since the 1960s, the clan has earned $50 million a year. Between 1981 and 1985, Salerno imposed a 2% Mafia tax in New York on all contractors pouring concrete on buildings worth more than $2 million. Salerno's net worth may have been $1 billion.

In 1988, the gangster was sentenced to 70 years for racketeering and hiding illegal income of $10 million a year (only $40,000 a year was indicated in the declaration). Four years later, at the age of 80, he died in prison.

Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar

The income of India's most wanted criminal is estimated by Business Insider at $ 6.7 billion. Forbes included Cascar in the lists of the most influential people in the world in 2009, 2010 and 2011 (50, 63 and 57, respectively). His crime syndicate D-Company is accused of terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 1993 and 2008, in addition, he was involved in the smuggling of drugs and weapons. The US government believes that Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar is linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. According to one version, Kaskar is hiding in Pakistan.

Al Capone

Capone is the most famous American gangster. A character named Al Capone appears in 77 mafia films.

At the time of his death in 1947, his fortune was estimated at $ 1.3 billion. Capone acted in various criminal areas - bootlegging, racketeering, murder. In 1929, the US government declared him "Enemy No. 1". The prosecutor's office repeatedly sentenced Capone to prison, but a few months later he was released. As a result, in 1931, Capone was convicted only for tax evasion - for 11 years. He was supposed to spend most of his term in Alcatraz.

In 1939, Capone came out, but his health was undermined - he suffered from syphilis and dementia.

In 2012, Forbes conducted an analysis of Capone's former property. The Chicago four-bedroom house he bought with his first earnings was valued at $450,000, and the Miami Beach mansion where he died in 1947 was valued at $9.95 million.

Griselda Blanco

The Colombian Griselda Blanco was called the "Godmother of cocaine" by the Western press. Blanco was one of the key figures in the Miami cocaine trade in the 1970s and 1980s. Even in the male drug business, she had a reputation for being a ruthless businessman. According to Business Insider, her fortune was approaching $2 billion, however, she was far from Exobar's income.

Three times a widow, whose spouses were rumored to have died at her hands, she named one of her sons Michael Corleone. According to The Guardian, its distribution network was making tens of millions of dollars and moving around 1,500 kilos of cocaine per month. Before being arrested in 1985 in California, The Godmother was on the list of the most dangerous drug dealers along with Escobar and the Ochoa brothers. She was charged with 40 to 200 murders in Florida, but the woman managed to avoid the death penalty due to a technical error in court: the officer who testified against her was discredited because he had a sex conversation on the phone with a secretary in the accuser's office, the Guardian wrote. Blanco was imprisoned in federal prison, deported to Colombia in 2004, where 8 years later she was shot by an assassin on a motorcycle.

Khun Sa

Khun Sa, the “Opium King,” was estimated by Business Insider to be worth $5 billion. Born Chang Shifu, the son of a Chinese man and a Shan woman, changed his name to Khun Sa, meaning “Prosperous Prince,” in the 1960s. During these years, he led the Burmese army, engaged in the cultivation of opium in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia, which included 20,000 men. In the 1970s and 80s, the Sa army controlled the Thai-Burmese border and was responsible for 45% of the pure heroin entering the United States, for which the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) called him "the best in the business" (data from The Economist).

The US government placed a $2 million bounty on the head of the Opium King. By the 1990s, the DEA was able to destroy Sa's trade chain, and he moved to Yangon and retired. Currently, opium production in the Golden Triangle has fallen to 5% of the world figure (in 1975 it was 70%).

There are different versions about whether the drug lord saved billions before his death in 2007 - from "lived in luxury", but "satisfied with a modest pension."

Morris Dalitz

Moritz (Mo) Dalitz belonged to such legendary gangsters as Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel. During the era of Prohibition, he was engaged in bootlegging, later - gambling and real estate. In 1982, Dalitz was on the first Forbes richest list, along with artist Yoko Ono, actor Bob Hope, and mafia accountant Meyer Lansky. Dalitz's fortune was estimated at $110 million, but how much he actually earned remains a question.

Dalitz received a significant share of his wealth from the first casinos in Las Vegas. In 1949, he co-founded the Desert Inn casino and the Stardust Hotel. In the 1950s, he took part in the emergence of the Paradise Development Company, which built a university and a convention center in Las Vegas. In the 1960s, he invested in the $100 million complex La Costa Resort near San Diego, after which he sued Penthouse magazine for $640 million, which wrote that the construction was financed by the mafia. Unlike many colleagues in the criminal past, Dalitz lived to an old age, in recent years he has been involved in charity work.

Rafael Caro Quintero and Amado Carrillo Fuentes

Before the star of the drug lord "Shorty" rose in Mexico, two names thundered there - Rafael Caro Quintero (pictured) and Carrillo Fuentes. The head of the Guadalajara cartel, Rafael Quintero, owned marijuana plantations called Rancho Bufalo. During a 1984 police raid on the ranch, about 6,000 tons of marijuana were seized, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, cost Quintero between $3.2 billion and $8 billion. The Guadalajara cartel earned $5 billion a year. There were rumors in the Mexican press that Quintero followed Escobar in offering to pay off Mexico's external debt in exchange for his freedom. The drug lord was sentenced to 40 years in a Mexican prison in 1989, but was released 28 years later.

The second Mexican drug lord is Carrillo Fuentes, head of the Juarez cartel. The Washington Post estimated his fortune at $25 billion. It is believed that wealth allowed him to avoid justice for many years. Fuentes earned the nickname "Lord of the Skies" for his extensive fleet (22 aircraft) to transport cocaine to the United States. Fuentes died in 1997 during plastic surgery to change his appearance.

Pablo Escobar

Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar became the first criminal to appear on the Forbes 100 International Billionaires list in 1987 with a net worth of $3 billion. He only dropped out after his death in 1993. From 1981 to 1986, the Medellin cartel led by Escobar had a revenue of $ 7 billion, the drug lord took 40% for himself. The cartel received its main wealth from cocaine smuggling in the United States (about 15 tons daily), in the late 1980s it owned 80% of the entire cocaine market in the world. According to Business Insider, Escobar earned $420 million a week, according to other sources, his fortune totaled more than $30 billion.

Each year, the king of cocaine lost about $2.1 billion (10% of revenue) as the money was randomly stored in warehouses and abandoned farms, it was destroyed by mold and rodents. Every month, he spent $2,500 on rubber bands that held bills together. Once Escobar burned $ 2 million to warm his daughter: the family then hid in the mountains, and there was nothing to kindle a fire from. In 1984, the cartel offered to pay off Colombia's national debt in exchange for immunity. The DEA placed a $11 million bounty on Escobar's head. In 1991, the drug lord made a deal with the Colombian government to build his own prison, La Catedral (with a football field and guards chosen by him), to which the authorities could not approach closer than 5 km.

The life of a drug lord was so bright that in 2015 Netflix released the series Narcos dedicated to him.

Brothers Ochoa and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha

In 1987, along with Escobar, the co-founders of the Medellin cartel, Jorge Luis Ochoa-Vasquez (with an income of $ 2 billion), with brothers Juan David and Fabio, who received 30% of the cartel's revenue, were on the Forbes list of the richest. The Ochoa brothers remained on the Forbes list for another 6 years until they surrendered to the authorities.

The drug lord Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, who lived at the same time, worked both with the Medellin cartel and on his own (for example, transporting cocaine disguised as flower deliveries from Bogota to the USA) was also a billionaire. In 1988, Forbes estimated his fortune at $1.3 billion. Gacha stayed on the list for two years until he was shot dead by Colombian police.

Joaquin Guzman Loera

In 2009, the Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzmán Loera, nicknamed "Shorty", was included in the Forbes list of the richest people on the planet with a fortune of $1 billion. In 2012 and 2013, he ranked 63rd and 67th among the most influential people in the world. Strategic Forecasting Inc. and even estimated his wealth at $ 12 billion. The Sinaloa cartel under the leadership of Loer was responsible for 25% of illegal drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States and received $ 3 billion in proceeds. The New York Times, citing data from the Drug Enforcement Administration, writes that the cartel sold more cocaine than Escobar at the height of his career.

"Shorty" started his business in the early 1990s, transporting cocaine, including in chili cans (in 1993, the Mexican authorities confiscated such a 7-ton cargo). He was declared "Mexico's most wanted man" with a $7 million bounty: $5 million from the United States and another $2 million from Mexico. He was first arrested in 1993, but he escaped from prison in 2001. The last time Mexican intelligence agencies captured Loera in Sinaloa was in January 2016. Vanity killed the drug lord. He was going to make a biopic about himself and was casting. In addition, actor Sean Penn flew to "Shorty" to meet for an interview. It is believed that the authorities were able to track the movements of the criminal, including thanks to this.

We invite you to look at a selection of the faces of the most famous leaders of criminal groups around the world, because it is about such people that they say that it is better to never meet them live in your life. Although all these crime bosses look very different, they were all doing about the same thing.

One of the bosses of the Mara 18 organized crime group, Marlon Martinez, is on trial in Guatemala, where he is accused of murder. March 30, 2011

Mara 18 is the largest Hispanic gang in Los Angeles. She appeared in the 1960s among immigrants from Mexico and still maintains ties with the drug cartels of this country. The group consists of up to 90 thousand people operating in the United States, Mexico and Central America.

One of the bosses of the Italian organized crime group "Ndrangheta" Sebastiano Pelle after his arrest on November 9, 2011.

"Ndrangheta" was formed in the poorest province of Italy, Calabria. It is considered one of the most successful Italian organized crime groups. According to some reports, the 'Ndrangheta's income is up to three percent of the country's GDP.

One of the leaders of the Marseille mafia, 75-year-old Jacques Imbert, after being released from prison on April 8, 2005.

Imber was a member of the Three Ducks gang, which was especially influential in the 1950s and 60s. In 1977, an assassination attempt was made on him, which formed the basis of the film 22 Bullets: Immortal.

The alleged leader of the Slavic criminal gangs in Moscow, Alexei Petrov, nicknamed Lenya Sly. September 19, 2011

According to unofficial sources, Petrov was elected leader of the Slavic groups in Moscow in 2009 after the assassination of Vyacheslav Ivankov, also known as Yaponchik.

One of the alleged leaders of the Tambov organized crime group, Yuri Salikov, is being taken to court in the Spanish city of Palma de Mallorca. June 14, 2008

The Tambov organized criminal group appeared in St. Petersburg in the late 1980s and in the next decade actually controlled the criminal life of the city. Its creator is believed to be businessman Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin), who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for extortion.

One of the alleged leaders of the Tambov organized crime group, Gennady Petrov, is being taken to court in the Spanish city of Palma de Mallorca. June 14, 2008

Petrov, as well as several other Russian citizens, were detained by the Spanish authorities during Operation Troika. They are considered the organizers of the operation to launder the criminal money of the Tambov organized criminal group. Petrov calls himself a businessman. He has lived in Spain since the early 1990s. In 2012, Petrov left for Russia and refused to return to Spain.

Bonanno family boss from New York Vincent Basiano, nicknamed "Handsome Vinnie."

The Bonanno family is one of five Italian-American mafia families that control the New York underworld. The remaining families are the Gambino, Genovese, Colombo and Lucchese clans. Basiano has been serving a life sentence for murder since 2011.

Gigante was the boss of the Genovese clan from 1981 until his death in 2005. In the early 1990s, he was considered the most powerful gangster in America. To avoid trial, Gigante feigned insanity and often walked around New York in a dressing gown and slippers, muttering something inarticulate under his breath. In 1997, he was nevertheless sentenced to 12 years in prison and died in custody.

Retired yakuza boss Shinji Ishihara talks about his criminal past to reporters. April 5, 2006

Ishihara served in one of the largest gangster syndicates in the world, the Yamaguchi-gumi, which has several tens of thousands of members. The headquarters of the group is located in the city of Kobe. Unlike many other organized crime groups, members of the yakuza are allowed to "retire", as Ishihara did after serving his next term.

The funeral of the leader of the Taiwanese group "Bamboo Union" Chen Chili, nicknamed the Duck King in Taipei. October 18, 2007

The Bamboo Union, or Zhulyangbang in Chinese, is Taiwan's largest organized crime group. It belongs to the triads, as Chinese criminal gangs or secret societies are called. The Bamboo Union maintains close ties with the nationalists from the Kuomintang party and shares their political platform.

The leader of the Hong Kong branch of the 14K group in Macau, Wan Quokkoy, nicknamed Broken Tooth, is taken to court on November 23, 1999

14K is considered the largest triad in Hong Kong and in the world. It has about 20,000 members and is also active in Europe and North America. 14K controls heroin and opium shipments from Southeast Asia. The group is known for a clear management hierarchy and cruelty.

The grave of Aslan Usoyan, better known as Ded Khasan, at the Khovansky cemetery in Moscow. January 20, 2013

Usoyan is believed to have led ethnic Caucasian criminal groups operating in Russia. At the same time, it is known about the conflicts of his clan with other gangs led by people from the Transcaucasus. Usoyan was shot dead in Moscow by an unknown sniper on January 16, 2013.

The leader of the Taiwanese triad was forced to flee his native island when the authorities decided to limit the influence of criminal gangs. Chen Chili moved to Cambodia and even became a government adviser. He lived in a huge villa in the suburbs of Phnom Penh, where large stockpiles of weapons were found.

"Influential member" of the Sicilian "Cosa Nostra", arrested in Spain. February 19, 2010

"Cosa Nostra" is one of the most famous groups of the Italian mafia. She appeared at the end of the 19th century and is considered the inventor of racketeering. Cosa Nostra does not have a rigid structure. The grouping consists of numerous clans that control their territory.

Abroad, Kalashov is often called a representative of the Russian mafia, although sometimes a Georgian criminal authority. He began his criminal activities in the Soviet Union. He is considered a supporter of the late leader of the Caucasian clans Aslan Usoyan. Since 2010, Kalashov has been serving a prison sentence in Spain, which has already agreed to extradite him to Georgia, where he was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

One of the leaders of the Italian group "Ndrangheta" Pasquale Condello after his arrest. February 19, 2008

Condello was on the run for about twenty years. All this time he lived in his hometown of Reggio di Calabria. During his criminal career, he managed to earn at least $ 57 million. In any case, the property owned by him is valued at such an amount. Condello is accused of murdering the head of Italy's national railway company.

Sinaloa drug cartel member Juan Miguel Allier Beltrán at a press conference at police headquarters in Tijuana. January 20, 2011

US intelligence agencies consider Sinaloa the most powerful drug cartel in the world. It comes from the state of the same name on the Pacific coast of Mexico. During the 1990s - 2000s, Sinaloa supplied more than 200 tons of cocaine to the United States. The cartel also produces significant amounts of opiates and marijuana.

Salvatore Miceli, who was in charge of the international drug trade in the Sicilian mafia, at the Caracas airport before being extradited to Italy. June 30, 2009

Miceli was considered in the "Cosa Nostra" a kind of foreign minister. He was responsible for the supply to Europe of cocaine, heroin and other drugs produced in other regions of the world, primarily in Latin America.

One of the leaders of the Tijuana Cartel, Gilberto Iguera Guerrero, in Mexico City before being extradited to the United States. January 20, 2007

The Tijuana drug cartel from the Mexican state of Baja California is the third largest drug trafficker in the United States. He is the principal competitor of the Sinaloa cartel. In the mid-2000s, a significant number of Tijuana leaders were arrested and extradited to US authorities.

Joseph "Giuseppe" Bonanno is the founder of the New York crime family of the same name. 1960s

Bonanno is considered one of the main prototypes of Vito Corleone, the protagonist of the crime saga The Godfather. Bonanno has never been behind bars for a long time in his turbulent career. He died in 2002 at the age of 97 in Tucson, Arizona from heart failure.

The leader of the Corleone clan from the Sicilian city of the same name, Gaetano Riina, after his arrest in Palermo on July 1, 2011

The Corleone clan, which gave the name to the character of the famous film trilogy, has long been the main family of Cosa Nostra. Its leaders bear the title of "boss of bosses". The town of Corleone with a population of 12 thousand people is located in the hills south of Palermo at an altitude of about 600 meters above sea level.

The leader of the Mara Salvatrucha branch of the Mara Salvatrucha organized crime group in the Salvadoran city of Quezaltepeque, nicknamed El Diabolico, and the leaders of the local branch of the Mara 18 organized crime group announce a truce in the prison of the same city. January 31, 2013

The Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, is one of the most violent Latin American gangs. It was formed in Los Angeles among Salvadoran emigrants who fled the civil war, operates in California and Central America and, according to various sources, has from 50 to 80 thousand fighters. A distinctive feature of the members of "Mara Salvatrucha" are numerous tattoos, often covering the entire body.

Police escort Indian crime lord Rajendra Nikalje alias "Little Rajan" (Chhota Rajan) to the Bangkok Criminal Court after an assassination attempt. September 28, 2000.

Rajendra Nikalje was originally a member of crime boss Dawood Ibrahim's group, which is called D-Company in the media. The gang operated in Mumbai, but then spread its influence throughout South Asia. After a fight with his boss, Nikalje collaborated with the Indian intelligence services to weaken Ibrahim in exchange for information about assassination attempts. The gangs of Ibrahim and Nikalje, like other Indian criminals, launder money by investing it in the production of films in Bollywood.

Former leader of the Tijuana drug cartel, Benjamin Arellano Felix.

Felix was arrested in March 2002 in Mexico and extradited to the United States. In April 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for extortion and money laundering. After serving his term, he is supposed to be returned to Mexico, where he is threatened with another 22 years in prison.

Abu Salem initially worked with the Mumbai group D-Company, but then began to act independently. He is accused of numerous murders and participation in terrorist attacks. In 2007, Portugal extradited Abu Salem to India. Subsequently, Lisbon revised this decision, but Delhi refused to return Abu Salem to Europe. He has not yet been sentenced.

Coluccio belongs to an influential mafia clan. His brother Giuseppe was one of the leaders of the 'Ndrangheta in Toronto, Canada, and was involved in the supply of cocaine to Europe. Salvatore was wanted for four years. He was found in a bunker equipped with an electric generator and supplied with significant supplies of water and food for autonomous living.

Ivankov until his death in 2009 was considered the leader of the Slavic criminal groups in Moscow. In 1997, he was convicted in the United States for extortion, and after serving his sentence in 2005, he returned to Russia. In July 2009, he was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt and died a few months later from complications caused by the wound.

One of the leaders of the Tijuana drug cartel, Eduardo Arellano Felix, is in custody in Mexico City. October 26, 2008

After the arrest of the three Arellano Felix brothers, that is, Eduardo, Javier and Benjamin, as well as the death in a shootout with the Ramon police, the cartel was headed by the youngest of the Luis brothers, nicknamed the Engineer. For help in his capture, the Mexican authorities promise to pay 2.5 million dollars.

In 1991, Gravano became the highest-ranking member of the mafia, who broke the vow of silence "omertu" and cooperated with the authorities. Based on his testimony, Gambino clan boss John Gotti was sentenced to life in prison. In 1995, Gravano, who moved to Arizona, opted out of the witness protection program. He published an autobiography and then went into the drug business, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He has been serving a term since 2002.

Former Bonanno family boss Joseph Massino.

Massino became the first boss of five New York families to make a deal with the investigation. In 2004, he was sentenced to death based on the testimony of his comrades, including his deputy, Salvatore Vitale. In 2011, Massino, in order to earn the right to life, in turn, became a witness in the case of his successor Vincent Basiano.

The boss of the largest yakuza syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, Kenichi Shinoda, after serving a six-year prison sentence for illegal possession of a pistol. April 9, 2011

The synoda holds the title of kumicho, or supreme "godfather", the largest grouping of the Japanese mafia. He is the sixth boss of the Yamaguchi-gumi since it was founded in 1915. The Synod is characterized by an outwardly democratic leadership style. In particular, he prefers to travel by public transport rather than a chauffeur-driven limousine.

The beautiful heads of personal assistant secretaries contain megabytes of useful information: from the names of business partners to the number of spoons of sugar in coffee for the boss and the dosage of his pills. A little effort - and the secretary turns ... into the wife of her boss.

Wday. ru found out for his readers some of the "tricks" of resourceful secretaries.

Bill Gates and Melinda French

The founder of Microsoft, billionaire Bill Gates, recalling the events of almost thirty years ago, said in an interview: “Surprisingly, Melinda made me want to marry her. This is very strange, because it is absolutely contrary to my rationalistic considerations about marriage.

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That's it, no more, no less! Bill first met Melinda in 1987 at a press briefing in New York. She is 8 years younger than Bill. By that time, Melinda had already worked for the company for some time. Their wedding took place on January 1, 1994. It took Melinda 7 years for her boss to "want" to walk down the aisle with her. The couple now has three children. It is a pity that Melinda rarely gives interviews and does not attend social events. We bet that her "1000 and 1 Ways to Put the Idea of ​​a Wedding in the Boss's Head" manual would double the family's capital. But the lady does not share her secrets. She leads the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with a capital of more than $30 billion, and funds numerous projects related to computerization and healthcare.

Franz Beckenbauer, President of FC Bayern, and Heidi Burmester

According to evil tongues, the romance of the "Kaiser of German football" Franz Beckenbauer and secretary Heidi Burmester did not happen sober. It all started at a Christmas party in 2001. Franz later admitted that he was tipsy and allowed himself too much. And after a while, Heidi announced that she was expecting a baby.

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After some thought, Beckenbauer left his second wife Sibylla, with whom he lived for 12 years, and went over to his secretary. But the couple officially legalized their relationship only in 2006, at the height of the qualifying games for the World Cup, on the eve of the match between Sweden and Germany. As you can see, the decision of 60-year-old Franz and 39-year-old Heidi was not spontaneous. By that time, the couple had already had two children - a son and a daughter. The wedding ceremony took place in the Austrian Alps in the presence of only the closest relatives and friends. So, the "recipe" from Heidi - live bait fishing!

Luciano Pavarotti and Nicoletta Mantovani

The third wife of the great Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti worked as his secretary and assistant. The girl was beautiful, slim and 34 years younger than her boss. They say she conquered the 68-year-old millionaire with the ability to cook pasta! Like it or not, they say that the ex-wife of the legendary tenor blabbed about the “recipe for seduction”. Once in an interview, she recklessly stated: they say, Luciano is “spaghetti, spaghetti and love!”

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Looks like Nicoletta took it on board! Luciano and Nicoletta got married in 2003. Soon the couple had a daughter, Alichi. Unfortunately, the marriage did not last long. In 2006, Pavarotti was diagnosed with a malignant tumor of the pancreas. The operation to remove it was carried out in New York. But a few months later, in September 2007, Pavarotti died in his home in the arms of his beloved. Nicoletta received 25% of Pavarotti's fortune. Four years after the death of the great singer, the young widow admitted that a man had appeared in her life. Filippo helped Nicoletta manage the affairs of the Pavarotti Foundation. It's a little more difficult than boiling pasta.

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox and Marta Sahagun

After his divorce from his first wife, Mexican politician and entrepreneur Vincente Fox took a vow of celibacy. At least he promised not to marry until he became president!

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Said - done! In 2000, Fox won the presidential race. And exactly one year after the victory in the elections, on July 2, 2001, the wedding of Vincente and Marta Sahagun took place. Marta worked as the head of the press center. It was then that the “cowboy with a Harvard education” drew attention to the temperamental Mexican woman.

“In general, I am surprised how she has enough time for everything: to work in the political and public field and at the same time run the household - cook, help children do their homework, be aware of all their affairs. She is a very energetic and courageous person, ”Fox shared in an interview with the Russian press. Formally, Dona Marta left public office after marriage. However, as evil tongues claimed, the first lady had much more influence on her husband than the Mexicans can imagine. So, the recipe from Martha - do everything and be irreplaceable!

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Keith Garvey

Jimmy Wales is a typical electronic age genius. A shy lover of computer games, an inquisitive excellent student. He founded the most successful portal in the history of the Internet. And, as he admitted, he did it for fun.

Photo by Legion-Media

Effortlessly, the project brought its "father" millions. Jimmy has been living in the UK since 2011. As his third girlfriend, he chose the press secretary. True, not his secretary! Kate Garvey once worked as an assistant to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Jimmy and Kate got married on October 6, 2006. The wedding ceremony of 46-year-old Jimmy and 40-year-old Kate took place in London's Wesley Church. It was Kate's first marriage and Jimmy's third. By the time of the celebration, the couple already had a daughter. Among celebrities, model Lily Cole and singer Simpli Red came to congratulate the young. Well, we can say that Kate ran a brilliant PR campaign in her favor!

11th head of the Russian Ministry of Finance Alexei Kudrin and Irina Tintyakova

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin is also married to a "foreign" secretary. Before meeting her future husband, Irina Tintyakova, a journalist by education, worked as a secretary for Andrei Trapeznikov, Anatoly Chubais's press officer.

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At the time of meeting, Irina was 26 years old, Alexei was 13 years older. The novel lasted almost two years. After the news of the pregnancy, the couple decided to legalize the relationship. It was then that Kudrin filed for divorce from his first wife. After marriage, Irina took up charity work. She heads the Northern Crown Foundation, which helps orphanages and boarding schools. Irina loves jewelry and expensive outfits. In 2001, she almost started investing in the production of artificial sapphires. But then in 2002 she switched to the fashion world: the wife of the Minister of Finance became the holder of a part of the shares of Valentin Yudashkin Group. It seems that Irina knows how to make a millionaire out of her husband. "Just something" - to marry the Minister of Finance.

Head of the Just Russia faction Sergei Mironov and Olga Radievskaya

65-year-old politician Sergei Mironov is married for the fourth time. His wife, journalist Olga Radievskaya, is 31 years younger. Their acquaintance took place when Olga worked on a small St. Petersburg TV channel "VOT" ("Your Public Television").

In Italy, Toto Riina, the head of Cosa Nostra, the “boss of all bosses”, one of the most influential mafiosi in the world, was buried. Providing the "roof" of his empire, he promoted friends to the main posts in the country and in fact brought the entire government under control. His life is an example of how vulnerable politics is to organized crime.

Salvatore (Toto) Riina died in a prison hospital in Parma at the age of 87. On account of this man, who headed Cosa Nostra in the 1970s and 90s, dozens of political assassinations, ruthless reprisals against businessmen and competitors, several terrorist attacks. The total number of his victims goes to many hundreds. The world media write about him today as one of the most brutal criminals of our day.

The paradox is that at the same time Toto Riina was one of the most influential politicians in Italy. Of course, he did not participate in the elections. But he ensured the election of his "friends" and financed their promotion to the highest positions, and "friends" helped him to do business and hide from the law.

Like the protagonist of Mario Puzo's novel and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Toto Riina was born in the small Italian town of Corleone. When Toto was 19 years old, his father ordered him to strangle a businessman whom he took hostage, but failed to obtain a ransom. After the first murder, Riina served six years, after which he made a resounding career in the Corleone clan of the Sicilian mafia.

In the 1960s, his mentor was the then "boss of all bosses" Luciano Leggio. Then the mafia took an active part in the political struggle and the mountain stood for the far right.

In 1969, a convinced fascist, a friend of Mussolini and Prince Valerio Borghese (it is in his Roman villa that admiring tourists crowd today) started a full-fledged coup. According to its results, ultra-rightists were supposed to come to power, and all communists in parliament were supposed to be physically destroyed. One of the first people contacted by Prince Borghese was Leggio. The prince needed three thousand militants to seize power in Sicily. Legjo doubted the plan's feasibility and dragged his feet with a final answer. Soon the conspirators were arrested, Borghese fled to Spain, the putsch failed. And Leggio, until the end of his days, boasted that he did not give his brothers to the putschists and "saved democracy in Italy."

Another thing is that mafiosi understood democracy in their own way. With almost absolute power on the island, they controlled the outcome of any election. “The orientation of Cosa Nostra was to vote for the Christian Democratic Party,” one of the clan members recalled at the trial in 1995. “Cosa Nostra did not vote for either the communists or the fascists.” (quote from Letizia Paoli's Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime Italian Style).

Not surprisingly, the Christian Democrats regularly won majorities in Sicily. Members of the party - usually natives of Palermo or the same Corleone - held positions in the government of the island. And then they paid their mafia sponsors with contracts for the construction of housing and roads. Another native of Corleone, Vito Ciancimino, an oligarch, Christian Democrat and good friend of Toto Riina, worked in the city hall of Palermo and argued that "since the Christian Democrats get 40% of the vote in Sicily, they are also entitled to 40% of all contracts."

However, there were also honest people among the members of the party. Once in Sicily, they tried to curb local corruption. Toto Riina invariably shot such dissidents.

The mafia economy worked at the very least. In the 1960s, generally poor Sicily experienced a building boom. “When Riina was here, everyone in Corleone had a job,” complained a local old-timer to The Guardian journalist who visited Corleone immediately after the death of the godfather. “These people gave everyone a job.”

An even more promising business in Sicily was the drug trade. After the defeat of the Americans in Vietnam, the island became the main transport hub for the transportation of heroin to the United States. In order to seize control of this business, Riina cleared all of Sicily from competitors in the mid-1970s. In just a few years, his militants killed several hundred people from other "families". Relying on fear, the “godfather” organized exponentially brutal reprisals. So, he ordered the 13-year-old son of one of the mafiosi to be kidnapped, strangled and dissolved in acid.

In the late 1970s, Riina was recognized as the "boss of all bosses". By this time, the political influence of the Sicilian mafia had reached its peak, and the Christian Democrats had effectively become the pocket party of Cosa Nostra. “According to the testimony of members of criminal gangs, from 40 to 75 percent of parliamentarians from Christian Democrats were supported by the mafia,” writes Letizia Paoli in her investigation. That is, Riina put under control the largest political force in Italy. The Christian Democrats were in power for about forty years. Party leader Giulio Andreotti became prime minister seven times.

The connection between the bosses of Cosa Nostra and Giulio Andreotti was carried out by one of the representatives of the party elite, Salvatore Lima. In the Sicilian mafia, he was considered "their white collar". His father himself was an authoritative mafioso in Palermo, but Lima received a good education and, with the help of his parent's "friends", made a party career. Becoming the right hand of Andreotti, at one time he worked in the cabinet, and at the time of his death in 1992 he was a member of the European Parliament.

Witnesses claimed that the Italian prime minister was well acquainted with Toto Riina and once even kissed the godfather on the cheek - as a sign of friendship and respect. Giulio Andreotti was repeatedly brought to trial for connections with the mafia and for organizing the murder of journalist Mino Pecorelli, who revealed these connections, but each time he got away with it. But the kiss story always pissed him off - especially when director Paolo Sorrrentino re-told it in his movie hit Il Divo. “Yes, they invented it all,” the politician explained to The Times correspondent. “I would kiss my wife, but not Toto Riina!”

With such high-ranking patrons, the “godfather” could organize high-profile murders and clean up competitors without fear of anything. On March 31, 1980, the first secretary of the Communist Party in Sicily, Pio La Torre, proposed to the Italian parliament a draft law to combat the mafia. It for the first time formulated the concept of organized crime, contained a requirement for the confiscation of property of mafia members, and provided for the possibility of prosecuting "godfathers".

However, the Christian Democrats, who controlled parliament, bombarded the draft with amendments in order to delay its adoption as much as possible. And two years later, the car of the indefatigable Pio La Torre was blocked in a narrow alley of Palermo near the entrance to the headquarters of the Communist Party. The militants, led by Toto Riina's favorite killer Pino Greco, shot the communist from machine guns.

The next day, General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was appointed prefect of Palermo. He was called upon to investigate Mafia activities in Sicily and the godfathers' connections with politicians in Rome. But on September 3, Chiesa was killed by the killers of Toto Riina.

These demonstrative murders shocked all of Italy. Under pressure from the indignant public, the parliament nevertheless passed the La Torre law. However, it was not easy to apply it.

The amazing thing: the "boss of all bosses" Toto Riina was wanted since 1970, but the police just shrugged. In fact, she always did. In 1977, Riina ordered the assassination of the head of the Carabinieri of Sicily. In March 1979, on his orders, the head of the Christian Democrats in Palermo, Michele Reina, was killed (he tried to break the corrupt system of power on the island). Four months later, Boris Giuliano, the police officer who caught Riina's men with a suitcase of heroin, was killed. In September, a member of the Commission for the Investigation of Mafia Crimes was shot dead.

Subsequently, when the "godfather" was still handcuffed, it turned out that all this time he lived in his Sicilian villa. During this time, he had four children, each of whom was registered in accordance with all the rules. That is, the authorities of the island knew perfectly well where one of the country's most wanted criminals was located.

In the 1980s, Riina unleashes a campaign of large-scale terror. The corrupt government is so weak that it cannot resist the "godfather". Another series of political assassinations is followed by a large-scale terrorist attack - an explosion on a train, which killed 17 people. But that wasn't what killed him.

Toto Riina's empire collapsed from within. Mafioso Tommaso Buscetta, whose sons and grandsons died during the intra-clan war, decided to hand over his accomplices. His testimony was taken by magistrate Giovanni Falcone. With his active participation in 1986, a large-scale trial of members of Cosa Nostra was organized, during which 360 members of the criminal community were convicted, another 114 were acquitted.

The results could have been better, but even here Riina had her own people. Presiding over the trial was Corrado Carnevale, a native of Palermo, nicknamed "The Killer of Sentences". Carnevale dismissed every accusation he could, picking on minutiae like a missing seal. He also did everything to commute the sentences of the convicts. Thanks to his connivance, most of Riino's soldiers were soon released.

In 1992, Giovanni Falcone and his fellow magistrate Paolo Borsalino were blown up in their own cars. A riot almost broke out in Sicily. The newly elected president, Luigi Scalfaro, was pushed out of the Palermo Cathedral by an angry mob and was about to be lynched. Scalfaro was also a member of the Christian Democratic Party, whose ties to Toto Riina had long been an open secret.

On January 15, 1993, the "godfather" was finally arrested in Palermo and has since experienced many trials. In total, he was given 26 life sentences, and at the same time was excommunicated from the church.

Simultaneously with the career of Riina, the history of the Christian Democratic Party of Italy also ended. All its leaders, including Giulio Andreotti, went to court, many went to prison. Andreotti himself was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but the sentence was later overturned. In 1993, the party suffered a crushing defeat in the elections, in 1994 it disintegrated.

Toto Riina survived his empire by 23 years, becoming the main symbol not only of the entire Italian mafia, but also of a system in which one bandit can subjugate the government of a European country to his interests.

1. Al Capone (1899 - 1947)

The legend of the underworld of those times and the most famous mafia boss in history. He was a prominent representative of criminal America. His areas of activity were bootlegging ( approx. illegal trade in alcoholic beverages), prostitution, gambling. Known as the organizer of the most cruel and significant day in the criminal world - the Massacre on Valentine's Day, when seven influential gangsters from the Irish gang of Bugs Moran were shot dead, including the right hand of the boss.

Al Capone was the first among all the gangsters to launder money through a huge network of laundries, the prices of which were very low. Capone was the first to introduce the concept of "racketeering" and successfully dealt with it, laying the foundation for a new vector of mafia activity. Alfonso received the nickname "Scarface" at the age of 19, when he worked in a billiard club. He allowed himself to object to the cruel and hardened criminal Frank Galluccio, moreover, insulted his wife, after which a fight and a stabbing took place between the bandits, as a result of which Al Capone received a famous scar on his left cheek. By right, Al Capone was the most influential and terrifying person on everyone, including the government, which was able to put him in jail just for not paying taxes.

2. Lucky Luciano (1897 - 1962)

Originally from Sicily, Lucky became in America, in fact, the founder of the underworld. His real name is Charles. Lucky, which means “Lucky” in translation, they began to call him after he was taken to a deserted highway, tortured, beaten, cut, burned his face with cigarettes, and he remained alive after that. The people who tortured him were Maranzano gangsters, they wanted to know the location of the cache of drugs, but Charles remained silent.

After unsuccessful torture, they left the bloodied body with no signs of life by the road, thinking that Luciano was dead, where he was picked up by a patrol car after 8 hours. He received 60 stitches and survived. After this incident, the nickname "Lucky" remained with him forever. Lucky organized the "Big Seven" - a group of bootleggers, whom he gave protection from the authorities. He became the boss of Cosa Nostra, which controlled all areas of activity in the criminal world.

3. Pablo Escobar (1949 - 1993)

The most daring Colombian drug lord. He entered the history of the 20th century as the most brutal criminal and head of the largest drug cartel. He established the supply of cocaine to different parts of the world, mainly to the United States, on a grandiose scale, up to transporting tens of kilograms on airplanes.

For all his activities as the head of the Medellin cocaine cartel, he was involved in the murders of more than 200 judges and prosecutors, more than 1,000 policemen and journalists, presidential candidates, ministers, prosecutors general. Escobar's net worth in 1989 was over $15 billion.

4. John Gotti (1940 - 2002)

John Gotti was a famous figure, he was loved by the press, he was always dressed to the nines. Numerous accusations from New York law enforcement have always failed, Gotti avoided punishment for a long time. For this, the press nicknamed him "Teflon John".

He received the nickname "Elegant Don" when he began to dress only in fashionable and stylish suits with expensive ties. John Gotti has been the leader of the Gambino family since 1985. During the reign, the family was one of the most influential.

5. Carlo Gambino (1902 - 1976)

It was Gambino who became the founder of one of the most influential families in criminal America. After taking control of a number of highly profitable areas, including illegal bootlegging, a state port and an airport, the Gambino family becomes the most powerful of the five families.

Carlo forbade his people from selling drugs, considering this type of business dangerous and attracting public attention. At dawn, the Gambino family consisted of more than 40 groups and teams and controlled New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Miami and Los Angeles.

6. Meir Lansky (1902 - 1983)

Jew Meir Lansky was born in Belarus, the city of Grodno. A native of the Russian Empire became the most influential person in the United States and one of the leaders of the country's crime.

He is the creator of the "National Crime Syndicate" and the parent of the gambling business in the states. Was the biggest bootlegger during Prohibition.

7. Joseph Bonanno (1905 - 2002)

The patriarch of the Bonanno family and the richest mobster in history. The history of the reign of Joseph, who was called "Banana Joe" has 30 years, after this period, Bonanno voluntarily resigned and lived in his huge mansion.

The Castelamarese War, which lasted 3 years, is considered one of the most iconic events in the criminal world. Ultimately, Bonanno organized a criminal group that still operates in the United States.

8. Alberto Anastasia (1902 - 1957)

The boss of one of the five mafia clans of criminal America. The head of the Gambino family, Albert Anastasia, had two nicknames - "The Chief Executioner" and "The Mad Hatter", and the first was given to him because there were about 700 deaths on account of his group "Murder Corporation".

He was a close friend of Lucky Luciano, whom he considered his teacher. It was Anastasia who helped Lucky take over the entire criminal world, carrying out contract killings for him of the bosses of other families.

Since 1981, he led the Genovese family, while everyone considered the boss of the family, Antonio Salermo. Vincent was nicknamed "Nutty Boss" for his, to put it mildly, inappropriate behavior.

But it was inadequate only for the authorities, since Gigante's lawyers for 7 years brought certificates indicating that he was crazy, thus he managed to avoid the term. Vincent's people controlled the underworld of all of New York and other major cities in America.

10. Heriberto Lazcano (1974 - 2012)

Once the leader of one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico, which is called Los Zetas. At the age of 17, he joined the Mexican army, and later worked in a special squad to combat the drug cartel. The switch to the side of the merchants occurred after he was recruited into the Golfo cartel.

The Los Zetas private mercenary force that the organization hired later grew into the largest drug cartel in Mexico. Heriberto dealt with his competitors very cruelly, for which his criminal gang was given the nickname "Executioners".