The longtime boyfriend of “Get Smart” star Anne Hathaway was busted by the feds yesterday for allegedly swindling investors – including Bill Clinton’s close pal – out of millions of dollars by convincing them he had the Vatican’s backing to flip Catholic Church properties in the United States.
Raffaello Follieri secretly siphoned millions from his real- estate-investment fund to pay for a lavish lifestyle, the feds charge. Follieri’s loot allegedly helped him jet around the world with the beautiful actress, who recently dumped him, and even pay her medical bills.
MORE: Indictment Against Follieri (PDF)
PHOTO GALLERY: Hathaway And Follieri
PAGE SIX: A Tale She’d Rather Take Back
Follieri lied to investors that he was the Vatican’s chief financial officer and had the ear of Pope Benedict XVI, the feds charge.
The handsome Italian’s audacious scheme also allegedly involved hiring a nephew of the Vatican’s ex-secretary of state and paying Catholic monsignors to dress in clerical garb of a higher rank to con people into believing he had the ear of top church leaders.
Follieri, 29, was hospitalized last night after collapsing in the custody of US marshals following a Manhattan federal court hearing in which he was ordered held in lieu of a staggering $21 million bail.
Prosecutors said he had tested positive for opiates after his arrest, and argued that he is a flight risk with likely access to funds hidden overseas.
“[Follieri] is a con man. He was able to con a lot of people out of a lot of money and did it over a long period of time,” said prosecutor Reed Brodsky in court, where the high-living Italian national faced charges of wire fraud and money laundering.
“He was able to deceive everyone from the most sophisticated investor to the naive person,” said. “The evidence in this case is overwhelming.”
The federal criminal case against Follieri echoes claims made by his highest-profile alleged victim, billionaire California investor and Clinton buddy Ron Burkle.
Burkle filed a civil lawsuit against Follieri that was settled earlier this year.
Prosecutors suggested that the suave, sweet-talking Follieri may have stolen up to $6 million – mostly in funds Burkle had invested with him in a business venture to buy Catholic Church properties. He allegedly spent all that $6 million on a luxury lifestyle that included a Manhattan apartment that rents for $37,000 a month and $3,000 for custom suits.
Prosecutors say he hid his theft through a series of wire transfers into bank accounts his controlled, some overseas.
In one instance in late 2005, Follieri siphoned $107,000 of Burkle’s money to pay for a private jet trip to the Dominican Republic for himself, Hathaway, 25, and his convicted-swindler father, Pasquale, the complaint said.
During that trip, Follieri and Hathaway partied with Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as ballet superstar Mikhail Baryshnikov at the home of designer Oscar de la Renta. Former President Clinton, who met Follieri several other times, has served as a business adviser to close friend Burkle for his investment funds. But Clinton has reportedly removed his substantial financial stake in Burkle companies.
Follieri also stole another $150,000 to pay for medical expenses for himself, Hathaway and his parents, the feds charge. In August 2006, he dropped $30,000 of Burkle’s money to fly a doctor to London “for a minor medical treatment,” the complaint said.
He is accused of swiping a whopping $800,000 from the billionaire by claiming the money was used to purchase “engineering reports” supposedly prepared by the nephew of a top Vatican cardinal, Angelo Sodano. Not only was that money spent elsewhere, the “reports” that Follieri later provided to Burkle’s representatives “were almost worthless,” the complaint said.
Follieri and others “spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on items for the personal use, including . . . flowers, cosmetics, clothes, wine, expensive dinners, dog-walking services and orthodontist expenditures for Follieri’s father,” the complaint said. About $200,000 was skimmed by claiming it was for an Italian office for his venture with Burkle, which did not in fact exist, authorities said.
A fidgeting Follieri was taken to court after FBI agents rousted him out of bed at his Trump Tower apartment at 6 a.m.
To be released, a judge said, he first must post $16 million of the bail in cash, and have the other $5 million guaranteed by five different people. If he made bail, he could leave his house only for medical, legal or religious visits within Manhattan.
If convicted, Follieri faces up to nine years in prison and subsequent deportation.
Follieri was dumped by “The Devil Wears Prada” leading lady Hathaway last week. The breakup came soon after The Post exclusively revealed that his Follieri Foundation charity was being probed by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Follieri remained in custody last night as his lawyer scrambled to put together the hefty bail package. He will be able to tap into $16 million that he holds in one known overseas account.
“Obviously, he’s concerned” about the charges, said Follieri’s lawyer, Flora Edward. “We’re looking for a good resolution.”
Stephen Huvane, a spokesman for Hathaway, said, “It is highly unlikely we will ever comment.”
Follieri’s arrest capped a year of increasingly negative stories about the businessman that questioned his claims of access to the highest reaches of the Vatican. Reports suggested he had used Burkle’s investments in a joint venture to fund a lavish lifestyle with Hathaway, whom he began dating in 2005.
He was busted in New York earlier this year for kiting a $215,000 check, but the case was dropped after he covered the funds.
In 2005, Follieri allegedly paid Bill Clinton’s top aide, Douglas Band, $400,000 to be introduced to Burkle. Afterward, he began doing business with the billionaire in a venture that was supposed to exploit Follieri’s purported Vatican connections.
On June 15, 2005, Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies committed up to $105 million in the venture with Follieri. The plan was to buy properties from the Catholic Church in the United States and redevelop them.
A criminal complaint filed yesterday against Follieri identifies Burkle only as “the principal investor.” But that complaint closely tracks a lawsuit Burkle filed against Follieri in Delaware.
Burkle sued after allegedly becoming aware that Follieri was using funds from the venture for things that had nothing to do with the real-estate business. Sources said Burkle did not help the federal probe of Follieri.
Yesterday’s federal complaint said, “Follieri told [Burkle] that he had key relationships in place with the Vatican that gave him a substantial advantage in terms of obtaining properties owned by the Catholic Church in the United States.”
The complaint said Follieri claimed his purported status made him able to buy Catholic properties at “a substantial discount” to market prices.
All his claims were false, according to authorities.
But to dupe Burkle and others into believing him, Follieri, among other things, hired Andrea Sodano, nephew of Cardinal Sodano.