Michael Franzese (born May 27, 1951) is an American former New York mobster and caporegime of the Colombo crime family, and son of former underboss John "Sonny" Franzese. Franzese was enrolled in a pre-med program at Hofstra University, but dropped out to make money for his family after his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery in 1967. He eventually helped implement a scheme to defraud the federal government out of gasoline taxes in the early 1980s.