The story of the pure banker who was branded – the mafia banker.
All in a lifetime. From the nights at Grand Central station of New York to stockbrokers on Wall Street working for Stratton Oakmont a spin off the Wolf of Wall street (Jordan Belfort), , and then for Ladenburg Thalmann, up to founding his own Investment bank. The wedding with Miss Brazil, two daughters, a house in Key Biscayne, a beautiful life. Then the fall, a cell in the prison of maximum security in Brazil together with the new Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug baron Pablo Rayo Montano. Now, a film about his story in Hollywood.
The American Dream rushes the trailer of Luca Longobardi. Neapolitan, 45 years old, white shirt with no buttons at sight, beard cured, dark eyes, and athletics, and today is a man who looks ahead, after the years of anger.
At the age of 21 he is in New York, $500 in his pocket and few samples of a famous shirtmaker.
“I live in an hostel. When there is no place, I sleep in the station, at Grand Central”
In the evenings, Longobardi is at the door of nightclubs. “I was who everybody wants to know, to get in” One night I was introduced to one of the partners of VTR capital, a spin off of Stratton Oakmont. “The chief of staff asks me: Do you think you are able to stay on the phone from 7.30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and make 400 calls a day for $200 per week? ” It’s Wall Street, it’s the dream, it’s the revenge. A fulminant career: Then to Ladenburg Thalmann, one of the oldest member of the NYSE”
Longobardi start his own Bank, State Capital. “We deal with mergers and acquisitions, investments in new technologies. The business range is between 30 million and a billion dollars. ” It opens offices in Italy, Miami and New York, and in Brazil, the country of his wife. She is Maria Joana Parizotto, Miss Brazil 96 and 19th place in the Miss Universe contest, with which he will have two daughters. Living in Florida, home on the beach in Key Biscayne, a perfect family.
On August 24, 2010. going to the American consulate in Sao Paulo, where he was arrested for being on the Interpol List, as one of most wanted man
“In those moments your mouth dry, you soul drains. You understand that you are closing a chapter of your life. ” There is a precise procedure, which foresees the extradition in Italy. “I was suppose to be taken by the Brazilian Federal Police, but the civil police were looking to get the reward for the arrest. They escort me to meet the chief of police, 20 armed agents, an helicopter. Flash and cameras. I was in handcuffs, and in 24h I become”The Mafia Banker”.
After I was take to prison
“There was a code to be respected, which I learned in two days. Everybody fought against extradition. But the worst is not jail, which is still death in life for an honest man who has dignity and values”
“For all I was the mafia banker” Longobardi is released after a month and dismissed of all charges.
After 6 years Luca Longobardi has reinvented himself in the hospitality group and lives in London
