The high-spending husband of beautiful socialite Annie Churchill was hauled off to jail this morning for stealing $590,000 from three of her rich investor pals via his bogus “virtual reality shopping mall” Web site.
Andrew Albert, 50, conned his wife’s pals for cash back in 2008, then spent the next two years blowing the money on fancy meals, clothes and renovations for the couple’s new Tribeca loft.
Meanwhile, the Web site, On1Ave.com — through which shoppers could have trotted a virtual version of themselves in and out of Prada and Ralph Lauren to “try on” and purchase clothes — never launched.
And Churchill, who reaped the financial benefits of the looting, has never apologized – or even returned their calls, two of her snookered investor pals said after watching Albert’s sentencing in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“His wife is nowhere to be seen,” quipped defense lawyer George Farkas, after his annoyed-looking client was led away by court officers. Under a deal worked out by Farkas and his attorney son, Michael, Albert will spend at least 1 and a half years in prison, and a parole board could keep him in for no longer than four and a half years.
Albert’s slim, brunette wife — who was never accused of being complicit in the scam — had been a fixture at fashion shows and society galas, regularly rubbing elbows with such swells as Fabiola Beracasa, Amanda and Gillian Hearst, and designer Douglas Hannant.
“We both knew his wife,” one of the two investors told reporters after court. “She hasn’t apologized for anything. She hasn’t even contacted us.”
The two men, who declined to give their names and lost in the low-six-figures each, said they began to suspect Albert when he refused to hand over tax records and kept making new requests for cash.
“I asked him where he was spending the money, and he told me he had spent $125,000 on a consultant,” one of the men said. “And I knew the consultant, and he told me he’d only been paid $15,000.”
With On1Ave.com never materializing, only Albert was shopping, and for both himself and his wife.
Prosecutor Judy Salwen of the Manhattan DA’s Special Prosecutions Bureau said Albert spent more than $26,000 on groceries from stores including Citarella and D’Agostino, more than $20,000 on clothing and accessories, more than $9,000 on hair and make-up, some $6,700 on expenses for their dog, and nearly $6,000 on health club expenses.
When he gets out of prison, he’ll owe more than $300,000 in restitution — the amount prosecutors traced to non-Web site spending.
“They took the risk that they would lose their money,” Salwen told Justice Thomas Farber at sentencing. “But they did not take the risk that the defendant would steal from them.”