crime

Convicted murderer Hans Reiser fingers corpse in Oakland Hills

Jackson West · 07/07/08 11:00PM

Hans Reiser, the wealthy Linux developer who has been described as "brilliant," led authorities to a location in the Oakland Hills where he said they would find the body of his ex-wife, Nina Reiser. The remains found have yet to be identified, but this confirms rumors that Reiser was looking to cut a deal, unearthing the body in exchange for a more lenient sentence of only fifteen years for the murder of the mother of their son. Reiser is due to be sentenced on Wednesday, which would make him sixty upon his release if he serves a fifteen-year term. Meanwhile, Reiser's counsel during the trial are bickering with Reiser's divorce attorney, with both camps claiming to represent the convict. While his trial lawyers are trying to argue that the software developer was and is mentally incompetent, his former counsel is asserting exactly the opposite. (Photo by AP)

Is the Asperger's Gambit today's Twinkie Defense?

Jackson West · 07/02/08 06:40PM

Attorneys for software developer and convicted murder Hans Reiser are now trying to convince a judge and jury that their client is "mentally incompetent," having portrayed what looked like attempts to cover up a crime as the misunderstanding of social cues. Their suggestion: Reiser has the mild form of autism known as Asperger's syndrome. If successful, Reiser would be jailed at a mental institution instead of with the general population, where the resemblance to Tobias "Toby" Beecher on HBO's Oz would not serve him well. Sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday, July 9th. (Photo by AP/D. Ross Cameron)

John McCain And Coke-Slinging Gangster Are Best Friends!

Hamilton Nolan · 07/01/08 09:03AM

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has the affectionate support of a man accused of buying several kilos of cocaine in Atlanta from the vicious Black Mafia Family gang! McCain "was seen embracing" his close friend and confidante Young Jeezy, a rapper also known as "Snowman." Because he loves dealing cocaine! The passionate meeting of like minds occurred on the set of Saturday Night Live last month, when McCain was hosting and Jeezy was the musical guest. Here's what the thug rapper has to say about his soul-stirring connection with the Arizona Republican, who greeted Jeezy "like a god":

Why LinkedIn's getting into the insider-trading business

Owen Thomas · 06/30/08 03:40PM

You'd think LinkedIn management, which has made no secret of its plans to take its automated schmoozefest public, would be trying to avoid trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Not so. They're aggressively marketing the company's latest moneymaking scheme, LinkedIn Research, to hedge fund managers. The premise: Traders can use LinkedIn to find "experts" with "unique input" on public companies in their portfolio. What LinkedIn marketers delicately phrase as "input," SEC investigators might well call "inside information." And the only thing actionable about the whole affair might be the insider-trading charges that result.

Happy New Jeffrey Epstein Mugshot Day!

Pareene · 06/30/08 02:48PM

Looks like you won't see former Radar (v. 2.0) investor and theoretical billionaire Jeffrey Epstein at Peggy Siegal's next party. The financier who surely doesn't have much time to finance what with all the massages and alleged raping he's doing is behind bars in Florida. He pleaded guilty to hiring underaged girls for sex and he'll spend 18 months in a Palm Beach jail (followed by a year under house arrest). The plea deal means the federal investigation against Epstein will be dropped, but now he is officially a registered sex offender. So now he'll only be allowed to expose himself to women procured by his assistant who merely look 14. [TSG]

Epstein Loses a Fortune, His Freedom

cityfile · 06/30/08 11:20AM

Remember Jeffrey Epstein, the "billionaire" financier and Bill Clinton pal who was busted in 2006 for his sexual relationships with underage girls? Two bits of news about the secretive mogul came to light today. First off, it turns out he was an investor in the ill-fated and scandal-plagued Bear Stearns hedge fund managed by Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin. It seems poor Jeff lost a bundle when the fund imploded last summer—some $57 million. Even worse, though, is that today marks the day when he is expected to turn himself in to the police in Palm Beach and immediately begin serving an 18-month sentence for soliciting an underage prostitute. (Where, we're guessing, he won't be able to waltz around in a "JEE" monogrammed fleece as he is on the left.) As awful as that all is, we can't help but think about what a crappy month it's been for Epstein's former pal, Ron Burkle. He now has multiple (former) friends behind bars. And there are a bunch of other people who probably regret ever hooking up with the supermarket billionaire.

Why Follieri's Scam Was Different

Pareene · 06/30/08 10:21AM

Joshua David Stein and Page Six Magazine got lucky this week—con man and Anne Hathaway-dater Raffaello Follieri (at left, with Bill Clinton) was arrested just as Stein's long profile of him went to press! It's an entertaining read, and while it answers lots of questions about how Follieri's big con worked, it raises a bunch too. Like how the hell did such a ridiculous scam work for so long? And how much of his own insane hype did Follieri believe? He had to be convinced of his rightness (and righteousness) to keep the lifestyle going after getting exposed so many times by the billionaires he conned. So despite lawsuits and gradual exposure as a fraud, he soldiered on.

Hateful Scum Threaten Pride Weekend

ian spiegelman · 06/29/08 01:05PM

After the Pride Parade and all the happy partying that will follow, ride the trains in groups this evening because a man was attacked by gay-bashing thugs last night on the 2/3 train near the Christopher Street stop after volunteering at a Pride event. He says the police haven't caught his attackers. "The guy kept asking us to move because he didn't like us and [said] that we made him sick. There was no place else for us to go. He started hitting me and then his girlfriend started clawing me with her nails...I took a cab to St. Vincents, filed a police report and got two black eyes, 7 stitches, multiple chipped teeth, broken glasses." [Gothamist]

Anne Hathaway's Ex Linked To "Waste Management"

Ryan Tate · 06/27/08 06:49AM

Gawker's own Josh Stein has a big article coming out in Page Six Magazine Sunday about Anne Hathaway's scuzzyupstanding ex-boyfriend, Italian con mangentleman philanthropist Rafaello Follieri. The Post gave a brief preview of the article today, stating that Follieri Group vice president Vincent Ponte used to co-own of "one of the largest waste-management firms in New York." Not sure why the Post picked that particular fact to highlight. So Follieri's associate came from waste management. Sounds like just the gig for a legitimate businessman looking to make an honest living, at least until he is convicted of racketeering due to being unfairly stereotyped as an Italian American. From the same article, but surely unrelated: Follieri's "friend" says Hathaway should come pick up her pretty little dog from Follieri's apartment, because it would be a shame if something nasty were to somehow happen to it. [Post]

Brooklyn Blog Narcs On Crack House

Ryan Tate · 06/26/08 05:14AM

"'At the end of the day, it was about putting aside anonymity, putting aside the HTML and physically showing up,' said Jason Miller, 37, the pet shop owner, better known to many as PetShopBoy, his login name on BayRidgeTalk.com." [Times]

Did Ron Burkle Set Up Rafaello Follieri?

Ryan Tate · 06/26/08 12:40AM

There was an interesting line in Wednesday's front-page Wall Street Journal story on alleged Italian con man Rafaello Follieri. Follieri, you'll recall, has been accused, among other things, of squandering $50 million from a partnership involving supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle and former President Bill Clinton, in part on lavish personal luxuries. The Burkle-Clinton swindle is at the heart of the criminal case that got Follieri arrested this week. And yet, the Journal said, Follieri and the partnership "recently settled the [parallel] civil case on undisclosed terms, and Mr. Follieri has begun spending time again with Mr. Burkle, say people familiar with the matter." Wow, Follieri blew millions of dollars of money entrusted to Burkle by his best buddy Clinton, and yet suddenly all was forgiven? I don't suppose Burkle was doing any surreptitious recording during his buddy-buddy time with Rafaello, like he did with Post gossip Jared Paul Stern?

The Complete Raffaello Follieri Roundup

Hamilton Nolan · 06/25/08 04:34PM

We can remember the innocent time just two weeks ago when we were urging innocent actress Anne Hathaway to dump her loser boyfriend, the swindling young con man Raffaello Follieri. How things have progressed since then! The Follieri coverage is almost too much to keep track of; after the jump, a handy link roundup of everything you need to know, up to right this minute:

"Let's talk about your boyfriend, Raffaello Follieri. What does he do?"

Hamilton Nolan · 06/25/08 11:15AM

The question in the headline is from InStyle's interview with actress Anne Hathaway in its upcoming issue. And we have a scan of it! To recap: Hathaway broke up with Follieri last week, and yesterday he was arrested on wire fraud and money laundering charges. So it must be so weird for her to have this interview coming out in which she gushes about cooking pasta for Follieri and throwing awesome dinner parties with him (not any more though, cause of the whole house arrest thing). Such unfortunate timing. Click through for a large version of the awk-ward InStyle page:

Arrested Anne Hathaway Ex Still Collecting Donations

Ryan Tate · 06/24/08 11:55PM

Federal prosecutors did not snare Raffaello Follieri's charitable foundation yesterday when they had the Italian businessman arrested for fraud and money laundering. The case against Follieri, at present, focuses on his alleged crimes against private, profit-seeking investors and not the Follieri Foundation he chairs, which supposedly vaccinates children in third-world countries. But the Feds' fraud and money-laundering charges against Follieri Group raise questions about the trustworthiness of the foundation to which it is so closely tied — questions made all the more acute by the fact that Follieri Foundation is itself under investigation by New York's attorney general after apparently failing to file U.S. tax disclosure forms. The foundation, [formerly] directed by Annie Longon, pictured at left via her Facebook profile (via same name/university/city as her Follieri-linked LinkedIn profile), is still raising funds, on the off chance you trust Follieri bookkeeping: [UPDATE: Longon wrote in to say she left Follieri companies in early 2007. For whatever reason, the foundation had not yet removed her name from its website at the time of publication.]

The Follieri Crime Family

Hamilton Nolan · 06/24/08 02:34PM

Raffaello Follieri always looked the part of the Italian aristocrat. Impeccably dressed and permanently tanned—like a more attractive version of Zach Braff—he arrived in New York as a dashing young business tycoon with inside connections to the Vatican and a plan to use those connections to make millions. In short order he landed stunning actress Anne Hathaway as a girlfriend and drew attention from some of the most powerful financial figures in America. His father was Pasquale Follieri, an Italian businessman and his son's partner in the Follieri Group, an shady concern that promised investors big returns from real estate dealings with the Catholic Church. But that's not all that Pasquale was; just two years after he helped establish his son in New York, he would be a convicted financial criminal, in an eerie foreshadowing of Raffaello's own fate:

The Case Against Raffaello Follieri

Hamilton Nolan · 06/24/08 11:31AM

The Smoking Gun has the entire criminal complaint against Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri, the hustling con artist charged with fraud and money laundering earlier today. Much of the information came out in previous stories and investigations, but it's still pretty stunning to see the extent of the guy's fraud laid out all at once. Payoffs, luxury, deception, and a crooked reporter—all in there. And you can understand why Hathaway stayed with him so long; if your boyfriend had an unlimited pot of (other people's) money to fly you around the world with, you'd like him too:

Rafaello Goes Down

cityfile · 06/24/08 08:18AM

Looks like Anne Hathaway had an idea that this week wouldn't be a good one for Raffaello Follieri. A week after she dropped she shady Italian boyfriend of four years, he was arrested today on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. The scheme? As you may recall, he's accused of deceiving investors—people like billionaire supermarket Ron Burkle—that he'd been hired by the Catholic Church to sell off real estate; instead, he used the cash to eat "for expensive clothes and restaurant meals, dog-walking services and other personal expenditures." The full criminal complaint below.