Some sources say that while Poletti served in Sicily his driver and interpreter was Mafia boss Vito Genovese, who had fled New York in the 1930s to escape prosecution for murder. Genovese was allegedly heavily involved in black-market activities with other Sicilian Mafiosi, including Calogero Vizzini. Another Mafia boss, Lucky Luciano, is also alleged to have once described Poletti as "one of our good friends." Poletti always said he had no connection to Genovese, Luciano, the Mafia, or black market activities. In a 1993 interview for BBC TV, Poletti said, "We had no problems at all with the Mafia. Nobody ever heard of it. While we were there, nobody heard of it. Nobody ever talked about it." In addition, the stories alleging a Genovese-Poletti connection fail to explain why Poletti would have needed an Italian language interpreter, given his fluency in Italian (including the Sicilian and Neapolitan dialects), Spanish, and German as the result of his heritage, his college studies, a job in his twenties working as a tour guide for college students visiting Europe, and his regular visits to his mother after she began residing in Italy following the death of his father.