Image from WWD.
A little more than two years have passed since federal agents paid an early-morning visit to Raffaello Follieri’s Trump Tower apartment and informed him he was under arrest on charges of fraud and money laundering (“The Follieri Charade,” October 2008). The former “Vati-Con” and ex-paramour of actress Anne Hathaway has kept a low profile of late as an inmate of the Loretto federal penitentiary in southwestern Pennsylvania. But the couple’s jewelry has just made news.
With the blessing of a U.S. federal judge, 16 lots of “gents” and “ladies” watches, along with diamond-and-sapphire earrings, pearl necklaces, and other jewelry, were put up for an online auction through the U.S. Marshals Service, with all profits earmarked as restitution for Follieri’s “victims.” Bidding started slowly last week but spiked in the auction’s last 24 hours. Clearly, the final day’s winning bids were pumped up by the jewelry’s alluring provenance. Had Anne Hathaway worn the blue-sapphire-and-diamond chandelier earrings that went for $10,525? Was the men’s 18-carat Rolex O.P. Datyona Cosmograph watch that sold for $14,826 the one that Follieri wore in his final days of freedom as he feverishly tried to pull together the deal that might put him back on top? According to a close friend of Follieri’s, the men’s watches that dominated the auction were all seized by federal agents from a vault in the Trump Tower apartment on the morning of Follieri’s arrest. Follieri was a watch aficionado, often trading ones he’d tired of for new ones, and most in the vault were indeed his. But Follieri’s Italian-born parents had been living in the apartment—their son had spent much of his last year in the dazzling Olympic Tower duplex where he entertained with Hathaway—and the 18-carat vintage Omega watch, which went for $2,025, belonged to his father, says the close friend. A women’s modest 10-carat white-opal ring, which sold with a women’s 18-carat Pomellato-brand rose-quartz-and-brown-diamond ring for $3,055, belonged to Follieri’s mother, the close friend adds. And the “gents” 18-carat Cartier Tank Basculante Anniversary Special Edition Watch—final price: $7,200—was a gift to Follieri from his parents.
Most of the women’s pieces, says the friend, were gifts from Follieri to Hathaway, surrendered by the actress after Follieri’s arrest. The blue-sapphire-and-diamond chandelier earrings—final price: $10,525—were bought by Follieri for Hathaway in Italy. The black stainless-steel and 18-carat Cartier Panther motif emerald and cultured pearl necklace—final price: $4,760—was probably also bought in Europe, says the friend, as was the 18-carat floral-motif blue-topaz-and-diamond cuff bracelet: final price: $8,310. Smart bidders may well have spent the early days of the auction combing the Internet for pictures that show Follieri or Hathaway wearing one of the pieces. Visual proof that the objects were worn by the Vati-Con or his leading lady would raise their value considerably. But according to the close friend, the top bidder on the “gents” Stainless Steel Audemars Piquet Royal Oak Offshore watch—which went for $11,450—will get a bonus no picture would show: the back of the watch is engraved from Hathaway to Follieri.
Who exactly will benefit from the sale is a question a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals chooses to answer by alluding to a press release: “victims.” As for Follieri, Loretto is a low-security prison, and according to this same close friend, he has Internet access—suggesting that he could have observed the auction in progress. He’s a voracious reader, the friend says, and has been pursuing his latest interest: alternative energy. He also works out every day, and, according to his lawyer Flora Edwards, “he’s always been a devout Christian, he prays and finds comfort in that.” He’s nearly halfway through his 54-month sentence, and if he’s rewarded with 15 percent time off for good behavior, as seems likely, he’ll be eligible for release at about this time in 2012. Whenever he does get sprung, he’ll be handed a one-way ticket to Italy, for as an Italian national with an expired—and almost certainly unrenewable—U.S. visa, he has no right to remain on U.S. soil.
His close friend has high expectations for Follieri when that day comes. “In Italy this type of situation is very common among the power elite,” the friend observes. “You see all the major industrialists having endured some public scandal. For Italians, this is a minor situation.” The friend thinks Follieri will emerge strengthened and resilient, like Gordon Gecko in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, ready to take on the world again—and start rebuilding that watch collection.
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