Pesos: The Rise and Fall of a Border Family

A true multigenerational story of how one family had and lost it all along the US-Mexican border.

Pietro La Greca Sr. was an intimidating Napolitano con man dubbed “Mexico’s real-life Don Corleone.” He ran Mexico’s biggest money-laundering scheme during the worst economic period in the country’s history. His was a world of fast cars, mansions on the water, and VIP treatment at Las Vegas casinos. His exploitation of Mexico’s financial free fall made him a wealthy man. But while he was running his criminal empire, his son, Pietro Jr., a.k.a. Picho, was learning his father’s tricks―if only to bring the man down.

An epic tale of greed, high-finance scams, drug cartels, and brazen corruption by the rich and powerful on both sides of the border, Pesos is as personal as it is lavish and fantastical. At its heart is Pietro La Greca Jr., who reveals a decades-long family struggle over the boundaries of loyalty, betrayal, and love, and his soul-crushing quest to free himself from the sins of his father.

Pietro La Greca Jr. served as a senior executive in the financial software services industry for over nineteen years. A veteran of the wealth and financial technology industry, he earned his BA and MBA from the University of San Diego. He lives in La Jolla, California, with his wife, Michelle, and six-year-old daughter, Gabi. When he isn’t entertaining clients with salty stories of his colorful family’s criminal past, Pietro volunteers for local charities throughout San Diego and serves on the board of trustees at an independent school in La Jolla.

Rebecca Paley is the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of multiple books and lives in Brooklyn with her family.