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A Connecticut money manager learned the hard way that it’s not a good idea to cheat on your Playboy girlfriend after writing her a blank check.
Wealthy businessman Andrew Oberwager was hit with Connecticut court papers last week by his former longtime gal pal — sexy German Playboy covergirl Karolina Stefanski — who says that he gave her the green light to write checks on his account and that she had every right to cash one for $80,000 after she caught him stepping out on her.
Stefanski, 33 — responding to a lawsuit that Oberwager, 36, filed against her over the dough in Stamford Superior Court — also claims he lied to a judge when he testified that she had reneged on their deal to pay back college tuition he gave her.
The Teutonic temptress submitted new potential trial evidence that shows that Oberwager promised to pay all her college tuition and expenses — and that the $33,000 he put up for her journalism degree from Boston’s Suffolk University was not a loan, as he has claimed.
The Harvard-educated Oberwager had sued Stefanski earlier this year, saying she wrote an $80,000 check to herself without permission and failed to make good on the tuition loan.
“She said she didn’t want charity,” said Oberwager, who holds both an MBA and medical degree, in court in July. “It was actually her idea to make it a loan.”
But Stefanski got Suffolk University to go back into its records — and the school produced a letter purportedly signed by Oberwager, who worked for Columbus Circle Partners at the time. In the letter, Oberwager claims he is the model’s benefactor.
“I have agreed to sponsor Ms. Stefanski and pay for her tuition and expenses,” Oberwager wrote to the school. “In addition, I will provide room and board for her at no cost.”
Stefanski says the letter contradicts Oberwager’s court testimony that he and Stefanski had inked a deal, kept on his personal computer, in which she agreed the tuition was a loan. The computer, Oberwager said, vanished when Stefanski dumped him.
Stefanski and Oberwager were together for about seven years before their 2007 split.
According to court testimony, Oberwager arranged for Stefanski to stay in the US “on various visas, claimed to others that he was supporting her [and] used her in his own business as a personal assistant in his own home to wash, clean, cook, manage his finances and keep papers for him.”
Stefanski left Oberwager “because there was some sexual proclivity that Mr. Oberwager was involved in with — specifically, a lady from Texas and various other ladies,” according to the testimony.
Stefanski went home to Germany after they split and cashed a blank check that had been pre-signed by Oberwager in 2004. She had made out the check to herself for $80,000 and became a designer and writer, according to previous testimony.
When the check was cashed, Oberwager went to the police, claiming Stefanski had forged his signature and stolen his money.
”I told them that Karolina filled out a check to herself and stole $80,000,” Oberwager said in July testimony.
Stamford Police veteran fraud Det. Peter Dispagna has told the court that Oberwager first claimed he didn’t give Stefanski the check and the never signed it.
But later — after the cop talked to Stefanski — Oberwager backpedaled and said he may have signed a check for her to use for emergencies, or to pay the Cablevision bill.
But, Dispagna noted, “He never made any distinction on denominations, or [said] when she could or couldn’t use that check. ’’
“He said he gave her no restrictions when he gave her the check,’’ Dispagna testfied. “There was no expiration date. He never said in case our relationship falls apart, you can’t use it. It was given to her with the explicit statement, according to him, to me, that in case she needed money, this is for you.””
Asked later about the cop’s statements, Oberwager told the court, “It’s a lie.’’