The ex-boyfriend of Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway apparently wants a presidential pardon for his involvement in the 2008 investment scandal known as Vati-Con.
The New York Post's Page Six reported moments ago:
“He claims to be purchasing an energy company in Switzerland,” a source told The Post’s Richard Johnson. “He’s having a hard time getting cash. He can’t figure out why, duh.”...[Raffaello] Follieri can’t return to the US as a felon. “He misses America, and when he gets enough money he wants to lobby for a presidential pardon.”
The Post reported Follieri's misdeeds in June 2008:
As the chairman and CEO of the Follieri Group, a real estate development company based in New York City, Raffaello has, in the last 18 months, been accused of skipping out on nearly a million dollars in unpaid bills and misappropriating $1.3 million. (And just as Page Six Magazine was going to press, Raffaello had been arrested on wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering charges.) Business cohorts ensnared in his scandalous web include the Vatican, Bill Clinton, supermarket exec Ron Burkle and men with ties to the Mafia.
In the Vati-Con scheme, Follieri was accused of misappropriating a $50 million investment from Burkle that was intended to buy up Roman Catholic churches here in America.
Access Hollywood reported in October 2008:
Follieri was sentenced to 54 months behind bars and three years probation on Thursday, after pleading guilty to 14 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering in a New York courtroom last month.
Last week, Follieri had asked the court to reduce his sentence to just 36 months, after initially agreeing not to appeal any sentence under 63 months as part of his plea deal.
However, prosecutors quickly countered, urging the judge not to show any leniency to Hathaway’s ex, who was arrested in June after allegedly posing as a representative of the Vatican to fleece wealthy investors in a real estate company that sought to buy and redevelop Roman Catholic Church property.
So now the ex-boyfriend convict of an Oscar winner wants a presidential pardon.
What might the odds of that be given the current White House residents' connection to Hollywood?
