Poor Raffaello Follieri. The guy really has had a super hard life. First he somehow got Anne Hathaway to date him. Then, fearing he didn’t have enough money to keep her interested, he tricked a lot of unknowing investors into giving him millions of their money, which he used for necessary purchases like yachts and jewelry. Now Follieri is arguing that he shouldn’t have to do as much jail time as he originally agreed to because his crimes were really the fault of all the rich people around him.
The lawyer for conman Raffaello Follieri begged a judge Tuesday to go easy on Anne Hathaway’s ex, vowing the scamster will return to Italy, never to be heard from again.
Flora Edwards blamed the 30-year-old entrepreneur’s downfall on his zest for the Hollywood lifestyle, complete with starlet girlfriend Hathaway at his side, while he crisscrossed the globe in private jets.
“He was surrounded by movie stars and celebrities and this young man who neither drinks nor smokes was intoxicated with it all,” Edwards wrote in a letter sent to Judge John Koeltl, who will sentence Follieri on Oct. 23.
“Unfortunately, he lacked the resources to maintain the opulent lifestyle of his new friends. Even more unfortunately, he had almost unfettered access to hundreds of thousands of dollars with few controls on his spending ability, until it was too late.”
Follieri pleaded guilty last month to swindling investors out of $2.4 million by overstating his ties to Vatican insiders willing to steer him sweetheart deals on church properties in the U.S.
[From the Daily News]
Stupid Anne Hathway for getting poor Raffaello Follieri into this mess. Clearly all he was trying to do was take care of her and provide her with the essentials. I mean it’s not like she’s probably got some money of her own. And she might have died without all those diamond baubles! He saved lives!
The funniest part of the whole brief is that his lawyer actually says, “‘The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,’” according to TMZ. I know this is generally frowned upon, but if I were the judge I’d lock that lawyer up for using such a bad cliché. Everyone knows the road to hell is paved with money and sexy ex-girlfriends.
Here’s Anne Hathaway at Elle’s “Women in Hollywood Event” at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles on October 6th. Images thanks to WENN. Header from when Hathaway and Follieri were still together. Image thanks to Bauer-Griffin.
What ARE those spots on Follieri’s face??? Looks like Kaposi’s Sarcoma! Geez…one can only hope the disolorations are from too much sun. Whatever, he should get that s**t checked by a doctor! 🙁
Cry me a river! Give him an extra year just for uttering that crap!
Poor guy! If he’d lie to all those people imagine who else she made him lie too! Anne is a user and abuser! *sarcasm off* What a Douche bag.
Yeah… it’s always someone else’s fault when you break the law… The one armed man.
“He was surrounded by movie stars and celebrities and this young man who neither drinks nor smokes was intoxicated with it all”
That just shows what a materialistic, self-centered and selfish this Raffaello Follieri is and for that he should get more time. What a moron.
Sorry guys but when you live with a man for so many years and especialy in such kind of life,you just cannot say you didnt know anything.She lived with him in Lavish hotels and yaghts and she wasnt and even now isnt getting so big money.I have a feeling she knew.I dont believe she is the innocent victims she is being portrayed.They both were living the Dolce vita with others peoples money.She sold him out to save her ass in the end.
Another pissy little bitch of a man, and I use the term ‘man’ loosely. Yes, of course Anne couldn’t afford life’s little luxuries herself so she made him do it, like Peter Cook wasn’t getting enough attention or thank yous and so screwed an 18 year old to make himself feel better. This guy’s a total idiot, hence he got caught. Douche bag indeed.
“My friends are rich and I’m not! I’s not fair! Poor me!…I know! I’ll scam the Vatican for millions! then they’ll like me, they’ll see!”
He should just suck it up and serve the time…. then turn around and make a huge profit by selling an Anne Hathaway tell-all book. “The REAL Princess Diaries: My Life with Ann Hathaway”. He could even sell the movie rights (fmr. Disney darling Christie Carlson Romano could play Anne).
I’m not joking. He could really come out of this on top if he plays his cards right. While public perception of Anne (see commentor Kate above) continues to decline.
I think she knew something, too. Gimme a break.
👿 Dogsh*t- she has her own money, criminal scum.
My best friend comes from a realy rich family,and we mean old money.We have become friends cause her grandmother insisted she and her brother will attend the local school,while her parents were living mostly abroad.We are both 30 years old now,she of course after she became 16 she attended school and University abroad.We remain the closest pals,and we are like sisters even though we meet 3 times a year the most/Even though i get great money from my work,she is of course superich.And when i have to be with her and her other friends who mostly come from her side of the river,which means very rich people too,i have to rely mostly on her hospitality in hotels and summer houses and vacations,and i always have alot of money with me so i wont feel bad,and before that we seated down and talked about it so we wont have bad feelings beetween us.I find ways to give it back to her when she visits me or her extended family in our hometown.Thats the way it is.When you move around those circles if you arent an equal or have someone close who is an equal to lets say protect you, you get ignored or laughed at.From the begining when i heard this story i was sure he probably started spending more and more cause both he and Anne loved this kind of life.They lived together at least 5 years.She knew.
i like anne but ya, i have small feeling that she knew (somewhat) what was going on. how could she not? they did live together and dated for a few yrs right?
this guy is a total tool though. ugh people like this, celebrities or not, make me ill.
Vanity Fair had a big write-up on this guy. He’s a serious con man. He started all of this way before he met her.
Did she know? I doubt it – it was all so legit sounding. He had the connections, did work, and attracted investors. As with most con men in the finance arena, he was able to produce any documents needed.
It was all legit, except for the fact that his income was based on the company’s assets, not based on revenue. Well, that and his church property based business plan was unsuccessful.
I think she might have had an inkling that something wasn’t quite right. But for him to blame her for his conscious decisions is assy to the extreme.
A more believable scenario is that he insisted on spoiling her, even though she never demanded anything, and then he turns around and uses that to blame her. D-bag!
Is he serious?? 😯
He’s a textbook example of an aggressive narcissist.
Cari, I totally agree. You can add sociopath to that one, too. Charming, has all the answers, says all the right things and blames any wrongdoing on everyone else. He should be locked up. And no, I doubt Anne knew anything in the beginning. She probably didn’t know anything until things were falling apart. And if she did confront him with any indiscretions he probably had all the answers and didn’t stumble once when giving her the correct answers. Con-artists are very skilled liars and manipulators and they bank on your trust.
Hmmmm a Vassar graduate just in the dark about his conning ways.. come on. She knew. But he was the fall guy. He signed the checks. She just collected all the benefits. I think it would be interesting to see the financials with the foundation she was doing with him. SHe had a good spin/pr team with hollywood backing helping her out on this o ne. They did not want to lose their money on the get smart movie so they saved her ass in the nick of time. IMHO
Gee,
Did you know that how well educated someone is or how wealthy or even if they have been warned–it doesn’t matter??–they can still be conned. I guess you’ve never had the good fortune of running into a highly skilled con-artist or sociopath. And please keep in mind most sociopaths are not behind bars–many are garden variety lawyers, CEOs, presidents and so forth. Since you seem to think she had to have known because she is smart, well hon, open season on you, isn’t it?
Think about it…he was able to con the Vatican and other very wealthy players…now how do you suppose that happened?? Don’t you think a man of god would have know better??
Remember this guy got investors to part with serious money, he was a very adept con man. Why would she know anything about the inner working of his business, do you know the day to day workings of your mate’s job – would you know if he or she were siphoning off money, of course not.
I think the first time the FBI contacted her, she talked to an attorney and immediately resigned from the board of the charity Follieri started with other people’s money. While he was trying to convince her he could work everything else out financially, he passed a bad check for $225k and was arrested and at that point she had to leave because there was no denying he was a crook.
She gladly gave all the gifts he gave her to the FBI, which was used, in part to satisfy what will be over 4 million in losses for skilled and experienced business men Folleiri managed to fool, how was Anne supposed to be better able to know what was going on if experienced businessmen couldn’t figure it out for years and millions of dollars later?
didn’t he bounce some rather large checks when they were together? I would have thought might have been an indication of a problem.
Also I read somewhere that he is a deliquent father, is that true? She would have known about that after all the time they were together. Doesn’t make you a con man (which he is) but that would bother me if the man I was dating was a bad father.
He has no kids and she quit his foundation and left him before he passed a bad check. She paid 37k rent on his apartment for 2 months because his elderly parents would have been evicted and she didn’t want them to be homeless, nearly 80k for his mother and father. I think she’s been more than kind.
Ah, the things people are able to hide and lie about….a con-artist will have a story for everything…even being a delinquent father and all the stories will make perfect sense–because chances are, she didn’t have the time or energy to check everything out. Besides, lots of people bounce checks and presumably, the larger your bank account the larger the checks bounced on occasion. There are, unfortunately, people very skilled at leading double lives, becoming whoever you want them to be, and enjoy making a game of it. Some people are completely souless and get by in life by mimicing human beings.
Or was he saying because Anne lived the high life it made him want it enough to steal for it? Dumb excuse.
queenie – you raise an excellent point. Touche’, you have swayed me on this one, and I retract the statement of what is now former opinion. The way you describe a soul-less conman is spot on, and I think you are right, when someone is very busy, they don’t have time to play FBI on the person who is using every bit of their energy to keep up a ruse to deceive them. Point well taken. Thanks. But I still think her PR team did a great job and I would suspect that the financial backers of the Get Smart movie helped out on that one.
My friend has just had her divorce finalised after her husband lied and deceived her regarding their finances – they lost everything. She let him sort out bills, pension etc because he worked in finance. Never let one partner be responsible for money matters! I don’t believe Anne Hathaway could have known – my friend knew nothing until the house was about to be repossessed!
That’s the best the lawyer could come up with? What a load of shizz!
So, you meet a bunch of rich people, wish you could be like them but instead of being man enough to admit you’re out of your league and should just stay within your financial realm, you resort to stealing millions from a church ? Yuh-huh.
I doubt Anne asked for anything in the way of expensive gifts from. I think Anne is a sweet kid whose only mistake was falling in love with an asshole.
douchey mc doucherton.
Holy crap, can he make himself look anymore like an *ss at this point? Give it up! You got caught, now live with it like a big boy.
hahahahahahaha 🙄
Hahahaha
interesting!
Hahaha