Do try to be extra nice if you bump into Donna Karan during Fashion Week: She's had better weeks, that's for sure. Jeff Moss, Karan's stepson-in-law—her late husband's daughter's husband—pleaded guilty yesterday to being high on Xanax and GHB when he got into a car crash on Long Island last year, a wreck that killed a 60-year-old woman. Moss pleaded guilty to all 14 counts against him, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and driving under the influence of drugs. He's expected to spend two to six years behind bars.

Yet another good reason to upgrade your old cell phone: police commissioner Ray Kelly announced today that potential crime stoppers can now send in videos to 911 via their mobile devices. In case the timing of the announcement has confused you, crimes against fashion do not count. Those should continue to be directed to Robert Verdi. [City Room]

Oh, how the fake mighty have fallen. Raffaello Follieri, who just months ago was a high-flying "investment" operator with Ron Burkle's money and Anne Hathaway on his arm, "is near an agreement to plead guilty to fraud and money-laundering charges," according to the Wall Street Journal. Follieri hasn't previously admitted guilt, but the charges against him were fairly damning. Follieri would join his father as a convicted swindler. But his decision to settle (if he actually does) doesn't mean that he couldn't have constructed a defense for himself:

Raffaello Follieri may be close to taking a plea deal, reports the Wall Street Journal today. The dapper Italian playboy and former boyfriend of Anne Hathaway (who looks a bit like a '50s film star in his Journal portrait) is accused of bilking a long list of investors, such as supermarket kingpin Ron Burkle. For the past few weeks, he's been locked up in lower Manhattan, unable to come up with $21 million in bail money. Now, the paper reports, the alleged con man is considering a plea deal that would keep him behind bars for four to five years. Follieri has yet to make a final decision yet, though, and there's still a chance he'll go to trial. If he does, we're sure he'd be positively elated to have you contribute to his defense by making a donation to that phony "foundation" of his, the Paypal account for which is still active.

You may recall that back in July, social scenester Arden Wohl was arrested in East Hampton after she allegedly stole a few items from the Ralph Lauren outpost in East Hampton and printed words "Ralph Lipshits" [sic] in red lipstick on the exterior of the store. She was given a court date of August 28 to answer for her crimes, which of course was last week. So what happened to the headband-obsessed party-goer and filmmaker? Will she spend the next year in jail, the maximum sentence for such unspeakable acts? The jury is still out, so to speak! We checked in with the Suffolk County district attorney's office, and a spokesperson tells us that the case was adjourned, and another date will be set so that Arden can finally face the music in village court. It's very doubtful she'll have to do any hard time, though; the worst part may be that now the summer season is over, she'll have to make a special trip to the East End later this fall to answer the charges. Now that would be a total pain, wouldn't it?

A rash of solar panel thefts has hit the Bay Area and Sacramento according to a report from local news station KPIX. Recently hit was the Hearst Elementary School in Pleasanton. Best part of the story? The main suspect in the case, a Pittsburg, Calif. resident, is alleged to have used Craigslist to fence the goods. According to reporter Jeffrey Schaub, each panel can fetch from $800 to $1000, much more than stolen copper piping or the platinum from catalytic convertors in car mufflers, which are also hot items. Putting it all together — the East Bay, late-night theft and Craigslist — my money is on meth addicts.

Nude supermodel photo scandal lawsuit alert! An anonymous model has filed suit in Miami against Egotastic.com and Splash photo agency for taking pictures of her sunbathing in her birthday suit (NAKED) in her own backyard—"as is often done by professional models to avoid tan lines." Invasion of privacy and emotional distress! But who is this mysterious, super-beautiful plaintiff? She helpfully includes several clues [UPDATE: the case may already be cracked!]:

Rafaello Follieri, the 30-year-old Italian who's currently languishing in an eight-foot cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan, made the biggest mistake of his life not when he lied, cheated, and spent millions of dollars of other people's money on private jets and suites at the Ritz, but when he hooked up with Anne Hathaway, according to Michael Shnayerson's in-depth article in Vanity Fair. While the doomed smooth-talker displayed an incredible knack for deception—the apotheosis of which came in September 2006 with his appearance onstage at the Global Initiative gathering with Bill Clinton, who congratulated Follieri on his "good works" and thanked him for a completely imaginary $50 million pledge—his business dealings may only have caught the attention of the feds because of Hathaway.

An as yet unidentified "Silicon Valley businessman" just got away with hiring an escort off an also as yet unidentified "social networking service." Of course he's not the only one — we're just hearing about him in the Chronicle, the Mercury News, and even the Palo Alto Daily, because his session, in a Palo Alto hotel room, was taped by a team of would-be extortionists. Last week, the Valley guy called the Los Altos police to his aid when "explicit images" from the tape turned up in his work email account, with the threat that unless he turned over $250,000, the tape would be leaked online. They'd recorded him on surveillance cameras without his knowledge.So how did he not only avoid going to jail for hiring a prostitute, but also keep the tape mum? The Los Altos cops did what they do best: an old-fashioned sting. The client turned up at a remote location suggested by cops to make the drop, and bargained down the hotel-room pornographers to $50,000. Officers arrested the alleged extorters as they drove away from the scene. The department had 15 officers working on the sting — and this isn't the only scam the ring pulled. Police are encouraging other clients to come forward. We'll repeat the cocktail-party line we keep hearing: "No one in the Valley hires prostitutes." If so, why are extortionists and vice cops doing such good business? (Photo by elliottcable)

Gossip Girl arch bitch Blair Waldorf isn't really the tony high society-born lioness she seems. In fact, she's the jail-born daughter of a convicted drug felon with a whole family's worth of shady criminal stories. Wait, that's actually a little too exciting and down-'n-dirty for the reasonably staid show ("I killed someone," confessed a bedraggled Serena last season; and by killed she meant sorta just didn't call 911). It's actually the kind of drahhhma that you can't make up. Leighton Meester, the actress who smartly plays Blair on the silly teen soap, was the one born in prison while her mother served time for her connections to a drug ring. Yikes. To add to the sad Texas pile, her father, aunt, and grandfather also spent time behind bars for various druggery. Wait a second. The season just started! This is far too early for such gangbusters reveals. Save it for sweeps, people! Sweeeeps. [Star] My second-favorite shocking GG reveal is after the jump.

So Adam Hochfelder, the real estate whiz who blew through $17 million? His lawyer is arguing that Hochfelder has such a serious drug problem that he's in need of sinus surgery (and thus should be given bail): "He's completely blown out his nose," lawyer Paul Goldberger told a judge in Manhattan Supreme Court. [NYP]

Moses Joseph began working at a Palo Alto VC firm called the Anila Fund in 1999 and soon after began conning banks such as US Bank, Wells Fargo, Eastman Kodak, Bank One and Silicon Valley Bank out of loans and investments with forged financial statements, checks and stock certificates. Yesterday, a two-month trial ended with a jury deciding to convict Joseph on 22 counts. What does this prove?That the best way for VCs to swindle cash from investors — even when big exits remain are as rare as they are these days — are through exorbitant fees.

Most mayors live in big homes. Quogue's may soon be heading to the Big House. George Motz, the village's mayor, was arraigned yesterday on securities fraud charges. Prosecutors allege that Motz bilked investors out of $1.4 million by "cherry-picking" stock trades that benefited his own Manhattan brokerage and investment house. It's bad news for Motz, sure, although it's good news for weekend residents who will have something else besides presidential politics to gossip about over the long weekend. [Newsday]

Gary McKinnon, the U.K. citizen trying to avoid extradition to the U.S. to stand trial on multiple counts of criminal trespass for using a 56k modem to hack into the Pentagon's network in search of UFO evidence, is trying a new tactic. Having lost his appeal, his attorneys are now pointing to a recent diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome as a reason to indefinitely delay his flight across the pond. While the Asperger's defense is nothing new, it has become particularly popular as a gambit by lawyers to excuse the behavior of geeks gone bad. Though not without much success — it certainly didn't work for convicted murderer Hans Reiser. (Photo by AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Seriously, who isn't returning their library books? The failure to return borrowed books is a very real, very pressing problem these days. We've brought you two jail-time examples of rogue library borrowers this week alone. Now we've received a list of various offenders from the fuzz—a Southern library is being robbed of their possession of something called The Amazing Panda Adventure! Don't worry: the police department is on the case.

Movie-like occurrence of the day: Pirates, for fuck's sake, have robbed a posh 178-foot party yacht moored off Corsica, making off with a freaking fortune. In the past the boat has hosted Jack Nicholson, Armani, and Puff Daddy, among others. Will the publicity surrounding this daring act of Robin Hood-style crime, minus the "give to the poor" part, lead to a rash of similar hijackings in the near future? You better believe it. Do you have any idea how lucrative yacht piracy is?:

Sometimes there's the chance for a comeback following a spectacular fall from grace. That doesn't look like a likely scenario for Adam Hochfelder. The erstwhile property mogul, who once controlled as much as 8 million square feet of property as part of his company Max Capital, counted billionaires Richard Kalikow and Robert Bass as partners, and was a social fixture around town, was arrested yesterday on charges of grand larceny and forgery. According to the Manhattan DA, the 37-year-old stole more than $17 million from banks and family members, money he used to pay off debts and for personal expenses.

"A cigar-smoking Denver police sergeant, accompanied by a team of five other officers, first put his hands on Eslocker's neck, then twisted the producers arm behind him to put on handcuffs." [ABC]

You may have heard the name Jonathan Leitersdorf in connection with his real estate dealings around town. The Israeli-born investor spent five years trying to sell off Sky Studios, the 11,000-square-foot triplex loft at 704 Broadway with a rooftop pool. The backdrop for several episodes of Sex and the City and the space where Chelsea Clinton had a big birthday party and Jerry Seinfeld married Jessica, the loft was only unloaded in late 2007, when Leitersdorf sold it to supermarket mogul Ron Burkle for $17.5 million. (He first listed the place in 2002 for $27 million.) Unfortunately, his investments at sea haven't been any luckier. His 178-foot yacht was just hijacked by pirates off the coast of Corsica!

A 52-year old man from Claymont, DE was surprised in his home by a taser-wielding Kimberly Jernigan, whom he had dumped months before shortly after they first meet in an attempt to flesh out a Second Life love affair. Jernigan fled, leaving her dog Gogi gagged with duct tape in the bathroom, but was arrested shortly thereafter by officers in Maryland. It isn't great publicity for Linden Labs, the company behind Second Life, but when you cater to making one's solipsistic delusions manifest, what can you expect? [CNET]