The boyfriend of sexy “Devil Wears Prada” star Anne Hathaway was hauled in by NYPD officers yesterday and charged with kiting checks.
Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri allegedly bounced a $215,000 check made out to a New Jersey man for undisclosed services to his real-estate company, The Follieri Group. According to sources, the account on which he wrote the check had only $39.08 in it.
The stunning Hollywood ingenue was dragged into the matter when cops went to her Manhattan home earlier this week looking for Follieri. One source familiar with the case said she broke down in tears when detectives demanded to know where he was, but she didn’t know.
Follieri, 28, eventually surrendered yesterday at the Midtown North station house. Cops grilled him about the check to John Morrongiello of Colts Neck, N.J., police sources said.
Follieri was released last night on a desk-appearance ticket on a charge of issuing a bad check, a class B misdemeanor. He did not comment.
Follieri’s lawyer, Cyrus Vance Jr., said he could not comment because he was still looking into the matter.
“He was asked to come in and make a voluntary appearance,” Vance said. “He has cooperated.”
Follieri, who arrived in the United States four years ago, is a magnet for legal woes. He’s been sued by California supermarket mogul Ron Burkle over a joint real-estate venture between the pair that went sour.
Burkle accused Follieri in a civil suit of misusing some $55 million from the venture, in which they planned to make money buying and reselling properties owned by the Catholic Church. The money allegedly funded a lavish jet-set lifestyle that helped catch the eye of Hathaway. They started dating in 2005.
“The improper personal expenses included, among other things, excessive and inappropriate private-jet travel for Follieri, his actress girlfriend and his father,” the lawsuit says.
He also recently battled in a Washington, DC, court with a PR firm that represented him during the Burkle entanglement.
He was ordered to pay nearly $240,000 to the Carmen Group after he was found in default last December.
He was also sued by a New Jersey private-jet service that claims Follieri’s joint venture with Burkle – Follieri Yucaipa Investments LLC – failed to pay $458,852 in chartering costs for nine flights between September and January.
Hathaway has joined with Follieri to run a foundation that provides vaccinations to poor children in Third World countries and other charitable works.
A report last year by The Post, however, revealed problems with the Follieri Foundation.
In a 2005 press statement, the foundation claimed to give grants for Catholic education and provide funds for senior housing and day-care centers, the report said. But when asked to list grant recipients in the United States, foundation executive director Chris Singleton could not name one.
Hathaway’s representatives had no comment.