Natasha Boncompagni Responds
Natasha Boncompagni is responding to the lawsuit filed against her by her sister, Tatiana, who claims she authored the forthcoming HarperCollins novel, Hedge Fund Wives, without any help from her sister. Natasha claims Tatiana's lawsuit was an attempt to "preempt" a lawsuit of her own, and says Tatiana couldn't have written the book by herself since it was based on her "Wall Street career" and "insider's knowledge of the social workings of the hedge fund community." There's more: Natasha also says her sister's "history of lying" is a "well-known fact both within our family and with her current publisher, HarperCollins," and that she only landed her first book deal after she lied about being descended from an Italian princess. Thanksgiving dinner at the Boncompagnis is going to be a blast this year, huh? Natasha's full response after the jump.
This was a private family matter that my sister has decided to make public. Our entire family is deeply saddened by her decision to willfully misrepresent herself as the sole author of "Hedge Fund Wives", a book that we co-wrote together.
My sister's filing today was an attempt to pre-empt what would be an eventual filing on my behalf. Moreover, on Wednesday, October 22 2008, I refused the emailed offer to essentially buy me off, that her agent (Joe Veltre) sent to me, with a copy to her which stated:
"Your sister has asked me to reach out to you with an offer. She would like to put all of this behind, as she's sure you would as well. If you assign to Tatiana the application for copyright registration for Hedge Fund Wives and any and all domain names you've registered in connection to the book, and release any and all claims to Hedge Fund Wives she will give you a check for $5,000."
Furthermore, it should be known that while technically a work of fiction, one of the main characters (Marcy) in "Hedge Fund Wives" is autobiographical and based on my Wall Street career and insider's knowledge of the social workings of the Hedge Fund community: the character begins her career in a two year investment banking program (as I did at UBS) and then proceeds to work as a Relationship Officer in Private Banking (as I did at Citigroup) and then later on, her work in the alternative asset management business (as I did at the Fairfield Greenwich Group and Barker Capital). The other main character, Gigi is a composite, but whose catering business is loosely modeled on that of one of my best friends— Carrie Tyler of Carrie's Catering— who graciously allowed Tatiana and I do research at one of her events in October 2007. There are several other Hedge Fund wives whose stories are also told, albeit in a secondary manner. And of course, the work of their husbands— the deals that went good or bad, their raw ambition, their social interactions— are defining element of the story. That being said, all of the characters are composites and I add the requisite disclaimer: "Hedge Fund Wives" is a work of fiction and as such any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental and so and so forth.
It should be further pointed out that the "Facts" stated in my sister's claim are riddled with forgeries, inaccuracies and misrepresentations. My sister's history of lying is a well-known fact both within our family and with her current publisher, HarperCollins: In order to get her first book, "Gilding Lily", published, she lied to HarperCollins that our mother was an Italian Princess. Her editor at HarperCollins, Lucia Macro, was assigned specifically for her "Royal expertise" and their marketing efforts were centered upon this claim. However, when my sister's fraudulent claim was challenged by the real Prince Boncompagni, in two letters to your newspaper dated September 9th and 10th, written to the attention of Richard Johnson and copying Steven Cuozzo (please see attached), she enacted a hasty cover-up: She persuaded HarperCollins to drop this information from their website and marketing materials and called upon all publications that she had the power to persuade to remove any references (Park Avenue Peerage is but one example).
It must be noted that one of her remaining claims via HarperCollins marketing materials— that her husband (Max Hoover) is an heir to the Hoover vacuum cleaning fortune—is categorically false. Her husband's family sold the company decades ago and no member of the family is a majority nor minority stockholder. It is a well-known fact that her husband's father—"Bunker" Hoover—squandered the family's fortune. His last remaining home in Nova Scotia was foreclosed upon this year and he is currently living at the home of his ex-wife (the actress Camilla Sparv) and his unemployed son (Bart Hoover).
In closing, please be aware that I do not live in Milwaukee permanently— I am simply staying here temporarily as when my apartment's lease in NYC was up, I decided not to renew given the economic uncertainty in NYC. Furthermore, I am not "unemployed"- if the appropriate records are checked, it will be evident that I have not filed for unemployment as I have been working on this.
Natasha Boncompagni
