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Robin Hood stole from the rich, gave to the poor….

The Salad Oil King stole from the Government, gave to the kids….


The Salad Oil King loved to help kids ride bikes as much as he loved scamming the US government

The legend of Robin Hood is well-know the world over. Although, it remains unclear whether Robin really existed—and, if he did, did he take “anything off the top for operating expenses.”

By contrast, almost nobody knows a real legend nicknamed the Salad Oil King.
The King’s real name was Anthony “Tino” De Angelis. By all accounts, including my mother, who was Tino first babysitter in Little Italy on Manhattan’s East Side, pudgy Tino was not much to look at, but he had a pair of “Pair of Brass Cohones”

That made him the undisputed King of white collar scams before the Internet.
From the 1930’ to the late ‘50’s, the Salad Oil King his mafia buddies creatively skimmed hundreds of millions from well-meaning U.S. programs for school children, stamp rationing and international, in complete anonymity.

Along the way, the more he stole, the more he practiced philanthropy, giving hundreds of thousands to boy clubs around America to buy bikes. His generosity even got him invites to walk in parades beside noted politicians in the New York area.

Like Robin Hood, Tino was an expert marksman. His favorite targets (from left to right)? The Free Lunch Program for Children, the WWII Stamp Rationing Act, and America’s post War Food for Peace program designed to help our allies rebuild.


Tino takes aim at his favorite targets designed and promoted for the common good

But hundreds of millions turned out to be just the beginning. And, so, should you choose to read my book, the Salad Oil King, you’ll see meet a man named Alfonso “Fonso” Gravenese, who looked and and talked a lot like Tino, turned hundreds of millions into a $13 billion scam (in today’s dollars) that shut down Wall Street, and wiped out a few blue-blood brokerage firms…among other things. By the way, the San Francisco Book review called Salad Oil King, “A classic American crime story by a master story-teller.”


Tino at the site of his unassuming $13 billion oil scam factory in New Jersey

In the end, you might wonder, how the hell did he do that, and where did Tino and all that money go?…Excuse me I meant Fonso!

DATE: Apr.08.2019 | CATEGORY: True Crime