Star Scams: Celebrity con man

If you were a hot young Hollywood celebrity in the mid-90s, chances are you'd be a friend of Dana Giacchetto. And why not? Not only would he invite you to great parties at his place, but the stockbroker would also make you tons of money with his financial wizardry. It's no wonder the likes of Cameron Diaz and Winona Ryder sipped champagne at his art-lined penthouse loft. But there was a catch - none of them realised they were picking up the tab.

'Con men target celebrities not only to get their money, but in the hope that some of the stars' celebrity glitz will rub off on them,' says veteran US government fraud investigator Martin Biegelman. And Giacchetto was obsessed with celebrity. He moved to New York in 1991 and worked his way into the smart A-list set as a financial whizz kid. He befriended Rick Yorn, a showbiz agent to stars like Minnie Driver, Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz. Some of them gave their trust - and their cash - to Giacchetto, 39, and from then on his client list grew. Soon Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were all hanging out at Dana's, laughing about how much money he was making them. 'You'd be talking to Winona and Alanis Morissette would ask you to hold her drink for a minute so she could sing. Then you'd turn around and Mark Wahlberg was asking you to dance,' recalled one guest. In the middle of it all would be the baby- faced Giacchetto, dressed in black Prada, his pet cockatoo Angel on his shoulder.

'I kept hearing about Dana, how good he was,' Courteney Cox gushed. 'He comes over to my house and gives lessons on stockbroking.'

The more his celebrity contacts grew, the more others were drawn in. 'You thought, if Leo is hanging out with this guy and giving him his money, why shouldn't I?' said one client.

Dana became a regular in the gossip columns. Best friends with Leonardo, he even vetted scripts for the actor, who used his house as a downtown crash pad. 'Leo would wander down about noon,' recalled a colleague, 'make some calls then they'd go out for a long lunch. Or Gwyneth would come by and it was all hugs and kisses and "love ya babe".' Dana was developing a whole cult of personality. He had so many celebrity friends that one reporter compared his loft to Andy Warhol's Factory in the 60s.

His lifestyle was decadent to the extreme. He'd think nothing of hiring a Learjet and flying to LA, where he'd wine and dine Hollywood's elite. But in private his life was spinning out of control. He became hooked on drugs and alcohol and his extravagance increased. To fuel his lifestyle he began looting the funds his Hollywood pals had entrusted him to manage.

Eventually, questions were asked and in 2000 an investigation was launched. Knowing the game was up, Giacchetto tried to flee. He was arrested at Newark airport in New Jersey with 80 first-class airline tickets to places like Rome and Singapore, an altered passport and $4,000 in cash on him.

At his sentencing, after pleading guilty to five counts of fraud, Giacchetto broke down. 'I lived in a world of fantasy. What I built became so big and I became so overwhelmed that I lost control. I'm sorry, your honour. Please show me mercy,' he sobbed.

But if Ben Affleck et al wanted to see Dana now, they'd have to head for the Manhattan Correctional Facility. He was ordered to pay $9.9 million in restitution and is still serving four years and nine months in prison.

Scores on the doors

Giacchetto conned a massive $20 million. So who lost what?

The rock band Phish $4.7 million

Courteney Cox $825,000

Lauren Holly $300,000

Ben Stiller $250,000

Tobey Maguire $150,000

Matt Damon $100,000

Ben Affleck $33,000

Other con men who've ripped off stars

Christopher Rocancourt lived in a suite at LA's swanky Beverly Wilshire Hotel and drove around town in a Ferrari. He variously claimed to be a Rockefeller, a European prince or the nephew of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta. The slick-talking Frenchman befriended celebrities like Jean- Claude Van Damme and members of the Jackson family, and even lived with Mickey Rourke for a while. But after gaining their trust he conned them out of millions, and is now in jail awaiting trial on a host of fraud charges.

Robert Trippet conned hundreds of thousands of dollars out of Bob Dylan, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and journalist Barbara Walters by getting them to invest in a phony tax shelter. He is on probation after pleading guilty to 10 counts of mail fraud.

Abraham Abdullah, a former dishwasher, is in jail awaiting trial for using the internet to glean information about celebrities in a scheme to steal $22 million. Among those he targeted were Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Star Wars creator George Lucas.

Copyright 2002 MGN LTD
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