The RICO Act has been very effective in ending the hold of the American-Italian mafia in the country. It also affected those who are not considered gangsters, but have committed RICO violations in the country. Some of these individuals were among the most trusted investors in the country and were capable of stealing or embezzling millions of dollars from citizens. Although not all of the stolen money is usually returned to the investor, the RICO Act gives the country the ability to imprison these offenders for a very long period of time. Although the RICO statute was created to combat organized crime, it has been just as effective against non-mafia white-collar criminals. When people think of the RICO law, they think of the gangsters who were accused of their violations. One of the most famous American gangsters charged under RICO was John Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime family in New York. In 2011, the FBI arrested 127 members linked to organized crime in New York, New Jersey and New England. Most of those arrested belonged to or were connected to one of New York's five families in some way. These are the people in America who are considered horrible criminals and who should serve time in prison for the crimes they committed. There are very few people in the United States who would willingly do business with the Italian Mafia. This is due to the reputation of the Italian mafia for committing illegal activities. This is not the case for those who are CEOs of large companies or those who hold Series 6 and Series 7 licenses. These licenses allow a person to sell mutual funds and stocks in a respectable manner. These people are entrusted with a person's money and are approved by the Fed... middle of paper ... they "earned" by continuing to invest. Most never tried to cash out their earned dividends and reinvested their profits. A few people actually received their profits and it became known in Madoff's RICO case that they were all his friends. His friends were able to benefit greatly from this project. One of his friends, Jeffry Picower, was able to earn $5,771,339,795 from his investments in Madoff's company. It was well documented in the RICO case that Picower told Madoff what return on his investment he wanted and he then got that amount. In one particular case, he was able to achieve a return on investment of over nine hundred and fifty percent. This is an astronomical amount for a return on a stock investment. Picower was one of several individuals suspected of knowing about the scheme, but most investors did not know they were being scammed..