Whether a mafioso protects either the debtor or the creditor or mediates between the two depends on the bargaining position of the parties involved. A man called Felice Bruno, for instance, received a loan of 10 million lire from an acquaintance. When he showed no sign of returning the money, the acquaintance went to him "in the name of Don Pietrino," the deputy boss of Santa Maria del Gesù in Palermo. I leave it to the reader to decide whether or not Bruno paid up (OSPA: VIII, 1532).

XREF: Echoes coercive power dynamics in economic transactions beyond organized crime — how intermediaries wield influence based on relative leverage.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 433