Salad Oil King; Stories of greed gone mad. Rip-off #4.
How to overcharge customers for fresh fish.

When Alfonso “Fonso” Gravenese, AKA The Salad Oil King, was a 9-year old kid, his father asked him to help sell fresh fish from ice-filled cart to their neighbors on Spring Street in Little Italy after school.

“Fonso” quickly learned if he stuffed ice into the fish’s mouth with some of the ice the fish rested on, the fish would be heavier, and they could charge more on every sale. Fonso cut a deal with his father for 50% of these “extra” profits.

The fresh fish scam would only be the beginning.

The Salad Oil King is the remarkable story—based on a true story—of how a streetwise, unscrupulous high school dropout eventually bilked the American government out of $13 billion before anyone even noticed. It is a classic American crime story of greed gone mad.