Michael, already a capo at this point, stayed in Greening and continued to run his operations, while the others were sent to each of the Syndicate's other towns; Tony was sent to Baden Town, Soren to Garica Block, Nicky to Lenox Corner, and Lenny to Viris Area.
Two years later, in 690, tragedy struck the Yatela family as their father, Don Arsenio, died suddenly while dining at the famous ''Ma's Bistro'' restaurant. His brother, Attilio, was also found dead shortly afterward, leaving no-one of their generation to run the Syndicate. Medical personnel officially declared the Don Arsenio's cause of death to be a stroke, attributed to the use of [[meds|cocaine]]; Attilio's cause of death was ruled to be a heart attack. Although rules of succession dictated that Michael was the next in line for the position of Syndicate Don, the consigliere, Ciro Veleno, took control of the Syndicate "temporarily", informing Michael and his siblings that he would run the day-to-day operations while giving them time to grieve.
However, after six months, Veleno refused to go through with the succession proceedings, repeatedly denying Michael's requests to discuss the situation. Relations quickly soured, and Michael accused Veleno of using the death of his father to stage a coup and take control of the Syndicate. According to Michael, Veleno's response was to hire a mercenary hit squad to attempt murdering Michael; and many eyewitnesses reported seeing four armed men following him outside of Greening, intending to carry out the hit in the UA. Michael, however, survived the encounter, killing all four of the mercenaries. Rather than turn back and cancel his trip out of Greening, he instead went into hiding, making Veleno believe that the hit had been successful.