Last Years and Missing Fortune
Ciancimino spent his last years in relative comfort. Since he was in poor health, his sentence was commuted to house arrest in Rome. He was allowed to go shopping, and on chauffer-driven rides into the Alban hills. When the Palermo city council sought €150m in damages from him in March 2002, he retorted: "Do they want it all in cash?" Treasures already identified as belonging to him include a yacht, historic buildings, a Ferrari and smart shops in Palermo. Ciancimino died of a heart attack aged 78 on November 19, 2002, leaving a wife and five children. His fortune remained elusive.
His son, Massimo Ciancimino, was arrested on June 2006 and charged with money laundering and other offences. Prosecutors believe the fortune accumulated by the son and heir of Vito Ciancimino could be about €60 million. They claim to have established a paper trail linking Ciancimino Jr. to accounts in the Virgin Islands, Amsterdam and Switzerland. In the notes found at the shack outside Corleone where Provenzano was arrested, two of the hundreds of his notes mention Ciancimino by name. One note claims angrily that Ciancimino had stolen "money not his to have fun in Rome, money that was meant to go to the families of prisoners who are in need ..."
Ciancimino was Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano's creature, he protected and promoted him to protect his own interests. The pentito Gioacchino Pennino revealed that Provenzano had guided and advised Ciancimino, launched and directed his political career, and personally confronted anyone who was disloyal. Falcone described Ciancimino as "the most political of the mafiosi and the most mafioso of the politicians."
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