As other posters have stated, this sounds more like someone leveraging themselves to the hilt than it does someone with mafia money. Perhaps both, but here in

As other posters have stated, this sounds more like someone leveraging themselves to the hilt than it does someone with mafia money. Perhaps both, but here in the US there are plenty of these small time self-described hustlers who overextend themselves in rentals, then when a minor downturn happens it all blows up. Some do get lucky and exit or die before a downturn happens, but in the interim the universal common theme seems to be they spend it like they won't have it tomorrow - likely for good reason. Real estate is one of those things where if you have a certain personality that likes to gamble and don't mind operating in a shady manner you are rewarded handsomely for it until a wider economic shift happens. It's the only socially acceptable gambling anyone can do where a bank will give an average joe 5x or more leverage and we see it as totally socially acceptable. Change that to the same guy trying to operate the same strategy in the stock market and he would be laughed out of the room by the bankers he requested the loan from. When you find banks willing to finance 90-70% of a building on an interest only loan, it doesn't take a very long time to roll that into your next building. It then snowballs as you use the cashflow from those buildings to leverage into new buildings. It works great until it doesn't. So long as rent gets paid and buildings continue to increase in value everything works out fine. Once you get the first half dozen or so buildings set up, it appears to me it's harder finding new deals than it is finding the financing for them. I did the napkin math once and after around half a dozen to a dozen properties (depending on size) you start having enough cash to roll into a similar sized building every quarter. Pretty much all the "real estate guys" I know own absolutely nothing of their buildings other than appreciated value, as they operate on interest only loans leveraging their monthly cashflow. tldr; Leverage is a hell of a drug.