Businessman charged with 14 counts of fraud
Friday, 24 October 2008
Raffaello Follieri has been sent to prison for 4½ years by a federal courthouse in Manhattan.
The Italian-born businessman was arrested in June - days after he split from The Devil Wears Prada star Anne Hathaway, 25.
In an agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to 14 charges of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
According to the United States Attorney's Office Raffaello misappropriated ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars in investor money to live a luxurious lifestyle’.
‘It is plain that the defendant engaged in a substantial fraud involving a significant amount of money over a significant period of time,’ the judge told the court, reports the New York Times.
‘The defendant used the proceeds on lavish personal expenditures.’
After the sentence was read out, Raffaello, 30, denied any deliberate wrongdoing.
‘I didn’t start off with the intention of deceiving anyone,’ he said.
'I started off with good intentions to run an honorable business and make everyone proud of me. I have dishonored my family name and the church I love. I will never be able to wash away that stain and I will have to live with it for the rest of my life.’
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