Luca Alessandro Longobardi (born 1969) is an Italian entrepreneur, a venture capitalist and investment banker. He gained attention for being wrongfully arrested and spending time in a maximum security prison in Brazil, during which period he became known as "the

mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

's banker".

Early life

A native of

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, Longobardi left home for

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

with $500 at the age of 21 to begin his career. He sold shirts in the streets and spent nights rough sleeping between

Grand Central Station Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

and hotels' couches in New York City, a night clubs promoter with the same crew that launched

Studio 54 Studio 54 is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater and former nightclub at 254 West 54th Street (Manhattan), 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, it served ...

, before taking up a job at VTR Capital, a satellite operation of the notorious, now-defunct investment bank

Stratton Oakmont Stratton Oakmont, Inc. was an American over-the-counter brokerage house founded in 1989 by Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush. The firm defrauded many shareholders, leading to the arrest and incarceration of several executives and the closing of ...

, founded by

Jordan Belfort Jordan Ross Belfort (; born July 9, 1962) is an American former stockbroker, financial criminal, and businessman who pleaded guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation and running a boiler room as part of ...

. He then worked at

Ladenburg Thalmann Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services is a diversified financial services company with two primary business lines: independent brokerage and advisory and investment banking and capital markets. The company is engaged in investment banking, equit ...

, an investment bank owned by Bennett S. LeBow and

Carl Icahn Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American businessman and investor. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, ...

and one of the oldest member of the NYSE

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

, with a failed attempt to take over the bank in 1998, he went on to found his own investment banking group State Capital in 1999, opening offices in Italy,

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, New York and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Investing during his career in many of the well known tech startups.

Arrest

In August 2010 Longobardi went to the United States consulate in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

to renew his American

visa Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

. After the consulate's computer system identified him as a fugitive, and one of the most wanted men in the world, together with Bin Laden,

Matteo Messina Denaro Matteo Messina Denaro (; 26 April 1962 – 25 September 2023), also known as ''Diabolik'' (from the Italian comic book character), was an Italian mafia boss from Castelvetrano. He was considered to be one of the new leaders of the Cosa Nostra a ...

, and

El Chapo EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

, with a

Red Notice An Interpol notice is an international alert circulated by Interpol to communicate information about crimes, criminals, and threats by police in a member state (or an authorised international entity) to their counterparts around the world. The in ...

issued by

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

, he was arrested at the Consulate by a 50 men sting operation run by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

and the Brazilian Federal police, accusing him of

laundering money Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds into ...

for the

Italian mafia Criminal organizations have been prevalent in Italy, especially in the southern part of the country, for centuries and have affected the social and economic life of many Italian regions. There are major native mafia-like organizations that are ...

; he later became known in the press as "the mafia's banker". While awaiting extradition to Italy, he was placed in a maximum security prison along with notorious criminals such as Colombian drug lord Pablo Rayo Montaño, Pablo Escobar private pilot together with

Barry Seal Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal (July 16, 1939 – February 19, 1986) was an American commercial airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel. When Seal was convicted of smuggling charges, he became an informant for the Dru ...

former

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

Captain Pierre Jacques Hernandez Delannoy, Leonardo Badalamenti son of

Gaetano Badalamenti Gaetano Badalamenti (; 14 September 1923 – 29 April 2004) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. ''Don Tano'' Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s. In 1 ...

one of the most powerful member of the Sicilian mafia, and Italian terrorist

Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (), abbreviated NAR, was an Italian neofascist, neo-fascist armed militant organization active during the Years of Lead (Italy), Years of Lead from 1977 to November 1981. It committed over 100 murders in four year ...

Pierluigi Bragaglia.

Cleared of charges and subsequent career

He was cleared of all charges and released in September 2010 after it emerged that he had nothing to do with crime he was accused for, neither with the mafia. In 2015, Longobardi self published on

Amazon (company) Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 ...

his book ''Branded "The Mafia's Banker"'' () documenting his experience during his arrest and time in prison, it became a worldwide bestseller. A video promoting the book was released on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on 22 October 2015, reaching over 1 million views and winning the Best Trailer/Promos award for May 2016 at the

Los Angeles Independent Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episodi ...

. In December 2016, Longobardi's short film ''"An Italian Food Story"'' won the Best short Inspirational Film award at the Los Angeles Film Awards. On 17 January 2017 it was announced that Longobardi opened his own restaurant, 108 Garage, in

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a wikt:cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan and multiculturalism, multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting ...

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: Central London, N ...

. It became one of London's most acclaimed and awarded restaurants, receiving five star reviews from

food critic A food critic, food writer, or restaurant critic is a writer who analyzes food or restaurants and then publishes the results of their findings to the public. Terminology "Food writer" is often used as a broad term that encompasses someone who w ...

s. Longobardi was named in the world's 100 coolest people list in food and drink by

Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...

. In 2020 Longobardi returned to the world of finance, launching a new

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

and a

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firm and remains a strong idealist and active investor in some of the most disruptive

blockchain The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...

projects.

Personal life

Longobardi was married to , who was voted

Miss Brazil Miss Brazil () is a Brazilian national beauty pageant, held annually since 1954. The competition has gone through several incarnations throughout its history, while its main purpose has been to select the Brazilian representative for the Miss U ...

in 1996 and Miss Nuestra Beleza International in 1997. They have two daughters: Julia and Raffaella.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Longobardi, Luca Alessandro 1969 births Living people Italian businesspeople Investment bankers Venture capitalists