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	Italy's Man from God By Roger Cohen New York Times December 24, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/opinion/24cohen.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Charming Italians who parlay supposed Vatican ties into financial gain are nothing new. When I was a correspondent in Italy in the 1980s, Roberto Calvi played that game. He ended up hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London. Raffaello Follieri, from San Giovanni Rotondo on the spur of Italy's boot, is alive and kicking in his $40,000-a-month duplex on Fifth Avenue. Age 29, he used empty claims of church ties to befriend Douglas Band, a top aide to Bill Clinton. Band then smoothed the way to Clinton's moneyed entourage, including the California billionaire Ronald Burkle. That relationship birthed the unhappy union of Burkle's Yucaipa investment operation, of which Clinton is a senior adviser, and the Follieri Group in a venture to acquire Catholic Church property Follieri said he'd get on the cheap. From mid-2005, Burkle plowed $55.6 million into this enterprise, only to conclude Follieri was devoting a chunk of it to good living. A suit filed by Yucaipa in Delaware in May contends Follieri has been "systematically misappropriating the assets" to indulge in "massive charges for five-star lodging," "dog care" and "inappropriate jet travel" for himself and "his actress girlfriend." That's Anne Hathaway, of "The Devil Wears Prada." Follieri, whose dealings with Band were first chronicled by Claudio Gatti in the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore, denies the suit's allegations, which put his misappropriations at $1.3 million. It also accuses him of funneling money for phantom "engineering studies" to "Studio Sodano," run by Andrea Sodano, the nephew of the former Vatican secretary of state, who appears to represent the sum of Follieri's vaunted Vatican ties. After working briefly for Yucaipa-Follieri this year, Carmela Santucci, a hedge fund marketer, said in a Feb. 21 e-mail message to Follieri, copied to Yucaipa, that "little by little your web of lies revealed themselves to me." She describes him as delusional. The mystery is how a conclusion Santucci reached in two weeks eluded Clinton's entourage. Frank Quintero, a Yucaipa spokesman, said, "The business model was good, but we're unhappy with Follieri's spending habits." Follieri partied with the Clintons in the Dominican Republic in 2006, hung out with Band and got an on-stage thank you from Bill Clinton for a $50 million charity pledge at the 2006 meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. (It was not paid.) Band, a former White House intern, did not respond to three e-mail messages. Jay Carson, a Clinton spokesman who addressed the Band-Follieri ties in a Wall Street Journal article in September, declined to comment. Band's introduction of Burkle to Follieri was one of many. Other folk presented reflected a Rolodex of the globe's affluent from the Clinton library, foundation and Global Initiative. They included Howard Kessler, the pioneer of affinity credit cards, the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Hel and Michael Cooper, a Canadian property tycoon. Cooper provided millions to Follieri. In March 2006, the Italian paid Band $400,000 for this introduction. Carson told The Wall Street Journal Follieri "offered" this money to Band. But a March 22, 2006, invoice from Band, addressed to Follieri's Channel Islands-based Auspice Holdings, made a categorical request: "This will serve as a bill for consulting services for the amount of $400,000." Band asked for the money to be wired to a Citigroup account, number 26408901, of a Florida company, SGRD, he and his brother set up. Six days later he again demanded the funds. Other exchanges suggest Band advised Follieri on soliciting Bahraini and Slim money. Band, through Carson, told The Journal he didn't keep the $400,000. Half went to Cooper. Why, when and where the other half went are unclear. Cooper told me he had no comment. The Yucaipa-Follieri suit may be near settlement. A draft made available to me sets out a divorce on the basis of a $12 million payment from Follieri to Yucaipa. Follieri would get "complete ownership." "One of the partners is buying out the other," Follieri told me. He again denied "misappropriation." But it's not clear where Follieri will get the money. He's in talks with Plainfield Asset Management of Greenwich, Conn., to sell for $12 million land the joint venture owns. The whole thing's a mess. No wonder Bill Clinton is eyeing what Band called "an appropriate transition" out of Yucaipa. Band told The Huffington Post this would occur if Hillary Clinton gets the Democratic nomination. It might happen earlier. That would be salutary. Band did Burkle and Cooper no favors with Follieri. Clinton does his wife no favors where the margins of business, charity, fund-raising and politics blur. Follieri, who laughably promised the Clintons the Catholic vote, has a new baby: the World Missions Visa Credit Card. Purchases result in church donations. Kessler — another friend of Bill and contributor to Hillary's campaign — helped the deal for the card with Washington Mutual, an insider says. The Kessler Group did not respond to a call.
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