Timing is everything.
“Godfather” star Al Pacino yanked his cash out of the firm owned by money manager Kenneth Starr just weeks before the purported financial wizard was busted by the feds for an alleged $30 million Ponzi scheme, a source told The Post.
Pacino told one of Starr’s top account managers, “I’m leaving with you or without you, so if you want to retain my business, you need to leave,” said the source, who is familiar with the Starr & Co. firm.
“The guy ended up [opening another company] with another guy and took Pacino with him about a month ago,” the source said yesterday. “Pacino must have known something.”
Another Starr & Co. manager began an executive exodus by bolting with his own client, “The View” host Barbara Walters, six months ago — at around the same time that Starr settled a multimillion-dollar fraud lawsuit by the estate of an actress who played Lois Lane on the “Superman” radio show, the source said.
“All the partners just started taking off” with clients, the source said.
Other celebrities weren’t so lucky.
Authorities claimed Thursday that Starr swindled about $30 million from clients, including bling merchant Jacob “The Jeweler” Arabov and 99-year-old heiress Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, to fund an extravagant lifestyle and buy himself and his stripper wife, Diane Passage, an Upper East Side triplex.
“Mr. and Mrs. Arabov unfortunately invested substantial personal assets through several prominent individuals they trusted. It is now clear they were defrauded,” said Benjamin Brafman, lawyer for Jacob the Jeweler, who was allegedly stung for nearly $14 million.
Some of the client cash allegedly looted by Starr ended up in coffers controlled by former City Council President Andrew Stein, who is accused of spending $1.6 million of it on meals, hotels and a $150,000 Hamptons summer rental. Stein, 65, has been charged with lying about his role in a shell company that received the funds.
Free on $250,000 bond, Stein said yesterday, “Everything will be fine,” and predicted the case would be dismissed.
Starr is being held without bail.
The source said Starr “used to prey on these naive people” who were seduced by his glittering client list and his promises of big-buck returns.
Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland and Murray Weiss