The boyfriend of “The Devil Wears Prada” star Anne Hathaway is off the hook for check-kiting charges.
Manhattan prosecutors announced yesterday that they’d dropped the case against Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri now that he’s paid back the $215,000 he owed a New Jersey real-estate magnate.
Follieri was initially charged with a misdemeanor for writing a rubber check for that amount – on an account that held only $39.08. He was arrested in early April and had faced up to 90 days in jail if convicted.
The Hollywood beauty was dragged into the matter when cops went to her Manhattan door looking for him days before the arrest.
She burst into tears as she told detectives she didn’t know where he was, according to one source familiar with the case.
“The defendant has since reimbursed the complaining witness for the value of the check,” DA spokeswoman Jennifer Kushner said, referring to John Morrongiello of Colts Neck.
“And because the complaining witness is not interested in going forward with the charges, the District Attorney’s Office declines to prosecute this case at this time.”
The $215,000 was Follieri’s reimbursement for an investment Morrongiello had made to The Follieri Group, defense lawyer Cyrus Vance Jr. said yesterday.
“The investment was a promissory note from 2005,” Vance said. “Ultimately, Mr. Follieri understood he had to pay it back.
“The bottom line is that it was an amount he understood he owed and it’s been paid back.”
Morrongiello could not immediately be reached for comment. But a young woman who answered the door at Morrongiello’s sprawling mansion said he was thrilled to get his money back.
“He’s ecstatic,” the woman said, calling herself a friend and declining to give her name. “He’s very happy.”
Follieri, who divides his time between the United States and Italy, has suffered a host of legal woes.
He’s been sued by California supermarket mogul Ron Burkle over a joint real-estate venture that bombed. Burkle accused Follieri of misusing some $55 million from the venture, which involved the pair’s buying and reselling properties owned by the Catholic Church.
In a civil suit, Burkle claimed Follieri used the money to fund a jet-set lifestyle that helped catch the attention of Hathaway, whom he started dating in 2005.
Another civil suit, in Washington, DC, resulted in Follieri’s being ordered last December to pay nearly $240,000 to a PR firm that represented him during the Burkle matter.