Actress Anne Hathaway’s shady ex-boyfriend has agreed to pay back $3.6 million he scammed by boasting of connections to the Vatican and Pope John Paul II.
Among those in line to get back some of their stolen savings are two Catholic priests whom Raffaello Follieri conned, according to papers filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court.
But the deal covers only a fraction of the $13 million officials believe the smooth-taking Italian fraudster scammed to fund a lavish, jet-setting lifestyle with brunette beauty Hathaway – star of “Get Smart,” “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Rachel Getting Married.”
It is unclear if any of the victims will ever see a penny. Follieri’s lawyer, Flora Edwards, said her client is virtually broke after the feds seized all he had – just $38,000 in cash and jewelry – in June.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think he’s going to try and make good on it,” she said.
In a letter to Judge John Koeltl, prosecutor Reed Brodsky said the government signed off on the deal because the victims “expressed a preference” to agreements “that might be enforceable when Follieri is deported” after finishing his 4 1/2-year prison term for fraud and money laundering.
Follieri’s biggest promised payback – $2 million – would go to Dundee Realty Corp. of Toronto, a development firm that reportedly invested $6 million on his promise of buying church-owned property on the cheap because of priest sex scandals.
Monsignor William Hodge of St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church in Atlantic City is due $40,000 after telling probation officials he gave Follieri $110,000 from his inheritance to pay nuns supposedly working in Follieri’s office.
Another monsignor, the Rev. George Tomichek, who runs a community-development charity at St. Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia, was promised $20,000, according to the court papers.
The Yuicaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund, headed by supermarket magnate and Bill Clinton pal Ron Burkle would get back only $813,000. Burkle was suckered into forming a development firm with Follieri.
Yuicaipia, which already has recovered $1.5 million, was swindled out of nearly $4 million.