The ex-husband of Andrew Kissel’s alleged mistress yesterday said the slain swindler wrecked his marriage.
Craig Statler said his wife, Alison – an attractive brunette mother of three – filed for divorce five months after Kissel hired her in August 2000 to handle marketing and public-relations work for his ventures.
But it wasn’t until Kissel’s wife, Hayley, also filed for divorce last year that Statler “started to hear rumors” that Kissel and Alison, now 48, had been having an affair.
“Somebody called me, and they said that Hayley’s talking about Alison Statler and she’s accusing her of breaking up her marriage,” said Craig, 53, a retired Greenwich, Conn., stockbroker. “I’m kind of accusing Andrew Kissel of wrecking mine.”
Craig also said that when Kissel was busted on New York federal and state fraud charges last year, Alison defended him to the media by saying Kissel “was a very good family man.”
Several people have said Kissel and Statler had an affair. Hayley complained about the duo’s relationship in an angry e-mail to her sister-in-law in which she called their cozy relationship “the ultimate humiliation.”
Alison Statler’s lawyer declined to comment yesterday.
Sources said Alison met Kissel through embattled Westchester County businessman Scott Hockler – whose $125,000 Mercedes SL50 mysteriously burst into flames in his driveway last July.
While Hockler suspected a wiring defect, Mercedes reportedly said that a bottle of Ralph Lauren cologne left in the car exploded from sunlight exposure.
In a lawsuit – filed a year before the explosion – Hockler was accused of an “undisguised threat” against a business associate. The suit also claims Hockler talked about how “his Mercedes-Benz . . . blew up in his driveway ‘into 500 pieces.’ ”
Hockler told The Post he never made that claim.
Hockler has been mentioned in news stories as a jet-owning “dot-com millionaire,” the CEO of an online watch retailer, and the licensee for several exercise studios.
But the lawsuit accuses him of grossly overstating his wealth to lure in an investor, a claim he and his lawyer denied.
Hockler insists it was Alison Statler who introduced him to Kissel – and that the developer later discussed buying a business from him.
“I told Alison to get out of the relationship [with Kissel] . . . I was the one saying maybe he’s not right for you,” Hockler said, adding that he did so because Kissel was married.
He said Statler told him “mind your own business.”
Hockler, who himself was a business client of Statler’s, said, “I have nothing to do with Mr. Kissel,” adding that Greenwich cops have not interviewed him about the killing.
Cops have questioned Statler, although she is not a suspect in Kissel’s mysterious murder in his basement in Greenwich last month.
Craig Statler also said he heard Hayley Kissel filed for divorce after learning that a bracelet she had been given as a gift by Andrew was identical to one he had given Alison.
(p. 5 in metro)