The RICO law has been very effective in stopping the strong hold of the Italian American Mafia in the country. It also targeted those who are not considered gangsters, but have committed RICO violations in the country. Some of these people were among the most trusted investors in the country and were able to steal or embezzle millions of dollars from citizens. While the entire amount of stolen money is usually not returned to the investor, the RICO law gives the country the opportunity to imprison these offenders for a very long period. Although the RICO law was created to combat organized crime, it has been equally effective against non-mafia white-collar criminals. When people think of the RICO law they think of the gangsters who were charged with their violations. One of the most famous American gangsters charged with 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 one of the five New York families or were in some way connected to them. These are the people in America who are considered horrible criminals who should serve a prison sentence for the crimes they have 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 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 licensed by the Fed... middle of the paper... they were "earning" by continuing to invest. Most never tried to cash out the dividends they earned and reinvested the profits. There were some people who received their profits and in Madoff's RICO case it was learned that they were all his friends. His friends managed to profit greatly from this plan. One of his friends, Jeffry Picower, managed 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 how much he wanted the return on his investment and then got that amount. In one particular case he managed to obtain a return of more than 950% on his investment. This is an astronomical amount for a return on a stock investment. Picower was one of many believed to have known about the scheme, but most investors did not know they had been scammed.