Confessions from the City: Luca Longobardi, the Mafia's banker

I grew up in Naples and spent my youth trying to find a way to fit into life in that wonderful, impossible city.

I would hang out in the street with my friends but while they all dreamed of becoming gangsters, my ambition was different: I wanted to be a banker.

My horizons had been broadened by hearing my grandfather Raffaele talk about how different life was in America and I became determined to try my luck there. I arrived in New York at the age of 21 with $500 in my pocket, intent on turning my dream into a reality. I slept in train stations and cadged the occasional night in the chairs of hotel lobbies, pretending to be a businessman who had missed his flight.

Ivan, the concierge at the Waldorf Astoria, found me a job washing pots. From a roach-ridden apartment in the Bronx, I hustled my way up, first selling shirts outside Grand Central to travellers and then to Mr Pressman, founder of Barneys New York.

My big break came after four years when I got a job as a cold-caller for one of the “boiler-room spin-offs” made notorious in The Wolf of Wall Street. I stayed there for two years before quitting when I worked out it was a scam.

The skills I had honed on the streets helped me land a job with what, I naively thought, was a more traditional institutional American bank, Ladenburg Thalmann. After three years, I wanted to do it my way, and set up my own bank, State Capital, growing it into an organisation with offices across two continents that handled deals worth billions. I also married a former Miss Brazil and had two wonderful daughters. Everything seemed perfect.

But my rapid rise was followed by an even faster fall.

In 2010, I was wrongly accused of money-laundering and conspiracy by the Italian authorities. I was placed on Interpol’s “red list” and jailed in a Brazil alongside guys like Pablo Rayo Montaño, the Colombian drug lord. The fact I was Italian motivated the police to call a press conference and say I was laundering Italian mafia money. I became known as “The Mafia’s Banker”.

When I was finally exonerated, there was nothing left. I had no family, no money, just anger and bitterness. I had lost everything I had worked and lived for. Behind bars, I’d pontificated over love, fate and life choices. Moving back to Italy, I travelled the country, immersing myself in the food and the culture.

Inspired by my experience, I moved to London with the dream of opening a restaurant. I stumbled upon an incredible but unknown chef, Chris Denney, and we turned a garage into one of London’s most acclaimed restaurants, 108 Garage in Golborne Road — we’re opening another one nearby on Southam Street.

My dreams were never negotiable, and I’m taking them back.

Luca Longobardi’s autobiography Branded The Mafia’s Banker is available through Amazon