The film portrays the FBI planting a listening device in a lamp in Paul Castellano's home while Castellano is on vacation in Florida. In actuality, an FBI agent posing as a television repairman planted a bug in Castellano's TV set with the unwitting assistance of Castellano's underboss Tommy Bilotti.
The character Joey Bazzini is based on the real-life Gambino crime family associate Joseph Iannuzzi, who operated bookmaking and loansharking operations in Florida for made man Tommy Agro. Iannuzzi became an FBI informant after Agro and two associates beat him almost to death with a baseball bat and tire iron when he fell several months behind in delivering payments to Agro.
Steven Bauer and Mark Margolis also appear in Scarface (1983), Breaking Bad (2008), Better Call Saul (2015).
Director Dwight H. Little and actor Daniel Benzali previously collaborated in Meurtre à la Maison-Blanche (1997).
The authors of the source novel, Joseph F. O'Brien and Andris Kurins, are former FBI agents who were forced out of the bureau after their book upset fellow FBI agents and administrators (both authors acknowledge they never sought permission from supervisors, nor authorization from their employer, to publish FBI resources in regards to the government's covert operation to convict Gambino crime family boss, Paul Castellano).
Furthermore, FBI officials blasted Kurins and O'Brien for inventing incidents, exaggerating their own exploits, and taking credit for the accomplishments of other investigators. There were details of Paul Castellano's sex life in the book, which by law, should have been expunged from FBI files, further embarrassing the bureau's brass. A bedrock issue in the dispute was a sacrosanct FBI tenet: agents shall not profit from confidential evidence obtained while working for the government.
Furthermore, FBI officials blasted Kurins and O'Brien for inventing incidents, exaggerating their own exploits, and taking credit for the accomplishments of other investigators. There were details of Paul Castellano's sex life in the book, which by law, should have been expunged from FBI files, further embarrassing the bureau's brass. A bedrock issue in the dispute was a sacrosanct FBI tenet: agents shall not profit from confidential evidence obtained while working for the government.