Kind of a complex scandal with a Clinton connection is now
unfolding in the tabloids. The background (according to a
September 2007 story in the
Wall Street Journal which includes a
handy chart):
Around 2003, a 25-year-old Italian “businessman” named Raffaelo
Follieri showed up in New York City, boasting of his Vatican
connections, and talking up plans to purchase Catholic Church
properties for commercial redevelopment. Follieri soon made the
acquaintance of Doug Band, a former White House intern who is now a
top aide to ex-President Bill Clinton. Next thing you know, an
investment firm run by Clinton’s buddy Ron Burkle is putting $100
million into Follieri’s project.
OK, now the celebrity angle: Just about the same time he made
the Clinton connection, Follieri became the boyfriend of Hollywood
beauty Anne Hathaway, the
stunning brunette star of “The Princess Diaries” and “The Devil
Wears Prada.” Miss Hathaway subsequently became a board member of
Follieri’s non-profit foundation.
Just because he’s a reputed associate of Bill Clinton shouldn’t
deprive Follieri of the presumption of innocence, but the
allegations of impropriety are arousing suspicion to the point that
even Democrats can no longer ignore them.
The New York Post reports:
State Attorney General Andrew Andrew Cuomo is
investigating a children’s charity operated by the controversial
boyfriend of sexy “Devil Wears Prada” star Anne Hathaway, who until
recently sat on the group’s board of directors, The Post has
learned.
Cuomo’s investigators in recent weeks served subpoenas seeking
financial documents from the Follieri Foundation, which is headed
by Hathaway’s beau, 29-year-old Italian businessman Raffaello
Follieri, the AG’s office confirmed yesterday… .
Confirmation of the probe came after Cuomo’s office was asked
whether it was aware that the foundation might have failed to file
tax-disclosure forms required of nonprofit groups.
A check of an online database that collects the “990” IRS forms
showed that the Follieri Foundation is required to file the form,
yet has never done so… .
Cuomo’s probe comes two months after Follieri was arrested in
Manhattan on charges that he bounced a $215,000 check - written
against an account that a source said had just $39 in it - to a New
Jersey man for services to his real-estate company, the Follieri
Group. Charges were dropped in May after Follieri paid up.
Earlier this year, Follieri settled a lawsuit filed by Los Angeles
billionaire Ron Burkle, who accused him and the Follieri Group of
“systematically misappropriating” at least $1.3 million of more
than $55 million that Burkle’s company had contributed to a joint
venture … .
Burkle’s suit said Follieri used the money to fund an extravagant
lifestyle that included private jet travel for himself and
Hathaway, as well as for loans of hundreds of thousands of dollars
to the foundation.
Say what you will about Miss Hathaway’s sweetie, Raffaello’s’s a
shrewd operator. Wherever Bubba is, the rich and gullible can’t be
far away.
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