We would be remiss not to tackle the elephant in room that is Anne Hathaway’s relationship with con-man Raffaello Follieri, aptly dubbed the “Vati-Con.” The story goes that the pair met in New York City in 2004 while Follieri was building his scam empire. The con-man bilked wealthy investors by pretending he was assisting the Catholic Church in selling off real estate properties thanks to his supposedly deep, personal ties with the Vatican. Somewhere along the way he upped the ante by infiltrating elite circles that included the likes of Bill Clinton, John McCain, and even the world’s richest man at the time, Carlos Slim. Follieri took some of them for a ride — all with Hathaway on his arm.
Alas, Follieri’s scam came to a screeching halt in 2008. Hathaway called off the relationship for good, and 10 days later, Follieri was arrested by the FBI on June 24, 2008. That following September, he pleaded guilty to various white collar crimes including wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy before being sentenced to four and a half years behind bars.
“It’s a situation where the rug was pulled out from under me all of a sudden,” Hathaway told W Magazine in October 2008 about Follieri’s high-profile arrest. While Hathaway was never directly implicated in any of Follieri’s crimes, her judge of character has certainly been called into question given that she carried on a relationship with the con-man for four years. Hey, maybe she just liked the idea of him.
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Nicki
