The hard times are just beginning for Andrew Stein.
Once a rising star of New York politics with a seemingly limitless future, Stein yesterday found himself in the humiliating role of a criminal defendant standing before a federal judge on charges of cheating the government out of $2.1 million in taxes.
His fall did not come as a total surprise to those who knew him.
“I heard he was borrowing money recently from friends,” said a source.
“For a large part of his life, money wasn’t a problem. I think he’s fallen on hard times. He’s more in a survival mode now.”
Stein today said he’s confident that “everything will be fine” and that the case will be dismissed.
“I got involved in some technical IRS issues,” he said. “My case got dumped in with another case.”
“I have had better days but I feel all right,” he added.
With his politically wired and wealthy father, Jerry Finkelstein, greasing the skids, Stein, a Democrat, was elected Manhattan borough president and City Council president.
Stein even allowed himself to dream of becoming the first Jewish president of the United States, friends recalled.
But by 1994, he suddenly and mysteriously disappeared from the political scene — before reinventing himself as a financial consultant who used his political connections to secure lucrative government deals for clients.
For the last 15 years, Stein, 64, has been living an opulent lifestyle that includes a $150,000 summer rental in Bridgehampton, four-figure restaurant tabs and luxury travel, prosecutors said.
All the while, he hid the fruits of his sketchy endeavors from the IRS, prosecutors say.
Now he faces up to five years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
He was released on $250,000 bond.
Stein was pushed into politics by his father, the influential former publisher of New York Law Journal, The Hill, and the now-defunct civil-service newspaper The Leader.
Throughout the 24 years he held elected office, from 1969 to 1993, his father, now in his 90s, loomed large over his career — bankrolling him and organizing supporters.
Asked yesterday what his father will think of his current problem, Stein told The Post, “With all the great work I did in public service and with nursing homes, I’m sure he’s proud of me.
“My father is very proud of me,” he mumbled, staring at his shoes.
A year out of Long Island University, Stein — who had dropped the first two syllables of his name early in his career — was elected to the Assembly in 1969. He quickly made headlines there with hearings on nursing-home abuses.
Eight years later, he beat David Dinkins in the Democratic primary for Manhattan borough president.
In 1985, he was elected City Council president, a now-defunct position that put him first in line of succession to the mayor.
During his tenure, The Post published an exposé on Stein’s toupees. He kept several of varying hair lengths that he regularly alternated to give the appearance of natural growth and haircuts.
He considered running in 1993 for mayor or public advocate — but never followed through, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.
“He decided he would be his own man and stop listening to his father,” said a source. “He didn’t seem to have much appetite for [politics] after that.”
Months later, he divorced his wife, Lynn Forester, who eventually married a Rothschild.
They had two sons, Ben and Jake, who are now in their early 20s.
Except for a public dalliance with conservative firebrand Ann Coulter, Stein remained out of the public eye for years. Then, last year, his name popped up in the probe into a state pension fund scandal.
It was Stein who first approached former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi’s top aide, Hank Morris, about working together to get pension fund business for clients.
Investigators for state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo quizzed him over the $1.5 million his firm Arapaho Partners received in exchange for helping a firm called Carlyle Europe Partners win a $133.7 million deal.
Another one of his firms, York Stockbrokers, allegedly helped Lehman Brothers win a $230 million deal in 2007.
Stein’s buddy, the financier Kenneth Starr, paid him millions between 2003 and 2009 for bringing in clients for his alleged Ponzi scheme, prosecutors said.
His brother, James Finkelstein, sued him for $100,000 over the nonpayment of a loan in 2004.
Stein’s former colleagues are shaking their heads.
“I never thought he would be so stupid as to intentionally not pay his taxes,” said former Mayor Ed Koch.