US News

THE BIG TIP-OFF ; QUACK GOT NAILED BY EX-BOYFRIEND

He was ratted out by one ex-boyfriend while living on the insurance money of another.

Suspected killer quack Dean Faiello helped fund his life of luxury on the lam with a $50,000 payout from the policy of a dead ex-beau, never suspecting that another former flame was telling authorities of Faiello’s possible involvement in the death of bank analyst Maria Cruz, sources said.

The fake plastic surgeon’s injection of cash came about a month ago, after he won a long battle with the family of his late lover, Broadway dancer Jason Opsahl, over the stricken man’s $85,000 life-insurance policy, law-enforcement sources said.

Opsahl died of an unknown illness at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center in October 2002, naming Faiello as the beneficiary of his policy, but Opsahl’s family sued Faiello on April 13, 2003 – the same day Cruz disappeared – to prevent the payout.

Faiello eventually prevailed, then enlisted his sister, Debbie, a New Jersey state trooper, to follow up on the matter after he bolted for Costa Rica, law-enforcement sources said.

Debbie Faiello has not been implicated in any wrongdoing. She has declined to comment on her brother and did not return a call for comment Friday.

Law-enforcement sources said part of the settlement money was wired to Faiello in Costa Rica, where the phony surgeon was living it up in gay hangouts in San Jose and at a swanky beach resort on the Pacific coast.

Faiello phoned an associate in New York to ask that the money be sent, lying that he was merely on an extended holiday to get a break from the city, law-enforcement sources said. “He just said he was taking a long vacation from his troubles with his business partners,” said one source. “He said, ‘I’m in the jungle!’ ”

What Faiello didn’t know, sources said, was that another ex-paramour of his in New York had tipped off authorities that something strange had gone on at the $420,000 Newark mansion where Faiello once lived.

The second lover had become enraged that Faiello skipped town without paying him back $80,000 the lover loaned him to make improvements on the house, as well for legal fees and other expenses, sources said.

The lover told cops he’d been the one who purchased several bags of cement and delivered them to Faiello’s Newark home, but then was told by Faiello to stay out of the carriage house where, cops say, Faiello was busy entombing Cruz’s body under a concrete slab.