Ricciardi was born and raised in New York City. He was an enforcer for the Colombo crime family before moving to California where he became associated with the Los Angeles mafia. Ricciardi allegedly was sent to the West Coast by the Colombo family to represent their interests in California and also to collect a debt for the Providence Mob and wound up staying in Los Angeles working with Los Angeles crime family capo Mike Rizzitello who reportedly used Ricciardi in a shakedown that turned out to be an FBI sting operation named Forex which was set up by San Diego mob boss and FBI informant Frank Bompensiero in cooperation with the FBI. This led to Bompensiero being discovered as a rat and a murder contract being put on his life.