One Small Step Becomes a Giant Leap...

In the legal working world, success is a combination of who you are, where you are, what you know and who you know. All factor into career progress in varying degrees depending on your career. In the underworld, who you know vastly overshadows the others. Idiots often become big shots because they know someone. You could be a really smart guy but have no connections and fail terribly. There is a wall that you can't get past without the right contacts. And it was no different in our circles. Sometimes a simple introduction changed everything. And that’s what happened when I met PJ. The circle that opened up to me after I met Nada Mucho (PJ among them) made a huge difference in what was possible. Suddenly, I was in touch with an entirely fresh group of high-level distributors, wholesalers and, at the top, smugglers. I hadn’t changed a bit and I was still connected to all the same people... but adding the new circle magnified the possibilities exponentially.

First of all, PJ lived just minutes away and we knew a lot of the same people from different directions. This added complexity to the sales matrix but also became an invaluable information source. We both benefited no matter who was running the particular deal. Up till then, I was more or less of a successful wholesaler/retailer. I still saw friends and acquaintances I’d met in the beginning when I was trying to make sense of what I’d gotten myself into. I was able to sell to them at way less cost than they’d pay elsewhere and was also able to pick out the primo quality for them. It was a great connection in many ways since I was not only keeping up old relationships but I was also now paying less and selling for more.

But that isn’t what this chapter is about... This is about who you know... And the connection to PJ also opened a door to possibilities that went far beyond anything I’d imagined to that point. He wasn’t just a hippie. He was doing things in a far more traditional way than I knew existed. He had an accountant, a lawyer, and some other very interesting resources... The key to these connections was that they all knew, to some degree, what was going on and they were all in for the ride and the dough.

By 1980, we had been through a dozen places in Manhattan, several in Queens, and were well into the first dozen on Long Island. The rules in the burbs were simple... Seclusion was essential... and we were mostly steered towards houses that were upper echelon places... Up a hill, behind tall hedges... down a long driveway... anything isolated... And it was funny... our criteria and resources justified almost any rent. Couple of grand a month? Sure thing... We’ll pay in advance if you’d like... Cash even... They were mostly on the Gold Coast/North Shore... Sea Cliff, Brookville, Lloyd Point, West Hills, Huntington Bay, Halesite... All upscale and all taken with one thing in mind... a secluded, controllable environment. After a while, you could get used to that type of place...

So one day, when we were facing the end of a particular lease... and the housing scout was out scouting houses, we came across an interesting opportunity. Interest rates, under the Carter administration, had reached epic levels approaching 18%, and had made real estate virtually unsellable. These geniuses from Georgia peanut country decided they could control inflation by raising interest rates... which they did... except the plan failed miserably. So once he was out of office, rates began to fall and had hit 12% when we ran across a house on 2.5 acres that the owner was desperate to sell. Vincent Poma was a banker for UBS and he’d raised his family in the house... was looking to downsize... but was stuck there in a non-existent real estate market. The scout comes back and tells me this is a very unusual situation... the house is up a 150 foot hilly driveway that ends at a drive-through garage. I mean there was a garage that you could pull into and out of without backing up. The house itself was interesting too... It's got a pool, a cabana with a bathroom, a back yard that would accommodate a tennis court. Built in the 1950s, it was supposedly a guest house for a very wealthy guy... Guido Eckstein was the name I recall but a little research shows he was the son of highly respected restaurateur, Vincent of the same last name.

http://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/03/victor-eckstein-owned-luchows.html?_r=0

More about the amazing house later... but bottom line... for $170,000 we could own it. And although it would practically tap our cash, we could scrape together the $70,000 and hope to get a mortgage for the rest. Unfortunately, there was just one problem. I had no income... errr... no visible income that is.... no tax returns... nothing that would justify a mortgage... and frankly, I had no idea about such things. And this is where the open door comes in. In a conversation with PJ, who was also renting in the area, I managed an introduction to an accountant who, basically, for a fee (of course)... could take care of the entire mortgage application issue for us. The guy was connected to the ‘real’ world of finance in ways and with knowledge that I had absolutely no clue about. Within a week or two, I had employment records, pay stubs, tax returns, and anything else that was needed to get the mortgage. In fact, I didn’t realize it at the time but I was signing on to a whole new way of life. Buying the house was just a first step. Maintaining something in my name also meant having an ongoing income, filing taxes, and so on and so forth. The next thing I knew, I was taking an insurance exam, getting a brokers license, and cashing checks (for a fee, of course). Today, it’s what they call money laundering. In 1980, I called it a major sign of success.