Suhay, Lisa. “The Tax Man.” The New York Times 2 Apr. 2000
RAY CICCONE, painfully stuttering through his youth, rose from poverty to become the architect of the accounting systems for some of Atlantic City’s biggest casinos and the savior of a chunk of Donald Trump’s empire.
The list of Mr. Ciccone’s corporate clients reads like a Forbes ”best of,” including: Aetna Life Insurance Company, Chase bank, General Electric, the Trump organization and Borden Inc. He designed the accounting systems for Harrah’s, the Sands, Trump Plaza and Trump Castle.
And the rest of the time he prepares taxes like an accountant who just hung out a shingle. Yet this devotee of the Sharper Image and Banana Republic catalogs is a millennium away from the traditional green visor and pocket protector.
Born in the Bronx, the 42-year-old Mr. Ciccone and his sister, Yolanda, 45, now of Metuchen, grew up in a household where Italian was the language of choice. His father was a shoemaker from Reggio Calabria, his mother a seamstress from Genoa.