Frank Coppa

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Frank Coppa in a Federal mugshot circa 2004.

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Frank Coppa, Sr. born (September 11, 1941 Manalapan Township, New Jersey) is a Sicilian-American gangster in the Bonanno crime family and close friend of Joseph Massino and Frank Lino. He is the godfather of Coppa's children, as Frank Lino is his.

[edit] Biography

Frank Coppa Senior has brown eyes and brown hair and stands at 6'2.

He started off burglarizing houses and was a member of the Avenue U Boys street gang. Frank was a lifelong childhood friend of Bonanno crime family capo Frank Lino. Coppa graduated from high school and event attempted college. He was gainfully employed as a grocery store clerk, transport truck driver and waiter but soon drifted back into a life of crime.

He began his criminal career selling stolen merchandise from transport truck hijackings. In Bensonhurst he associated with the Colombo crime family and Genovese crime family before he eventually joined the Bonanno crime family. He elevated himself from a "sidewalk soldier" to a shady businessman. Coppa was one of the Bonnano crime family's biggest mobsters active on Wall Street and is credited for practically inventing the pump-and-dump stock scheme.

He was involved in crooked stock market deals for nearly thirty years and earned millions. Coppa acquired many wealthy assets including parking garage leases, soda vending machine and coin-operated telephone contracts and a chain of chicken rotisserie restaurants which he once tried to get onto the stock market. He used his influence to win a city contract to bus handicapped children to and from school. In 1972 from his stock market schemes Frank lost his fortune. To win it back he invested heavily in the Texas oil company "Tucker Drilling". When he had acquired a quarter of the stock to himself, he dumped it at $4.00 a share earning him hundreds of thousands of dollars. For his involvement in the stock dumping of Tucker Drilling Lino was indicted and convicted. He was sentenced to three years of supervised release and two years unsupervised.

In 1978 he survived a botched car bomb attempt and suffered third degree burns and shrapnel wounds to his face, chest and legs when climbing into his Mercedes Benz. Despite his conviction he continued his scams in the stocket market and was arrested with Frank Lino in 1992 for it and they were both convicted of fraud. He became wealthy in the rackets driving a Mercedes Benz SUV and lived in a sprawling house in Manalapan, New Jersey. He later became state's evidence after faced with racketeering charges and testified against Joseph Massino following the actions of his friend Frank Lino who became state's evidence shortly before him.