Actress's boyfriend guilty in "Vati-con"

The new issue of Vanity Fair has a richly detailed and well-timed profile of Raffaello Follieri, who, as it happens, today pleaded guilty to real estate fraud in a colorful case in which he allegedly used purported Vatican connections to try to persuade North American Catholic dioceses to sell him real estate at a discount. The scheme has become known as the "Vati-con'' scandal. Follieri was also the longtime boyfriend of actress Anne Hathaway, and the couple are pictured above. An excerpt from the Vanity Fair story:

"Follieri was charming and charismatic, his Italian accent especially winning as he spoke of his humble hopes to serve the church by buying hundreds of millions of dollars of Catholic Church properties. True, the church would insist that the properties be put to some 'reverent' use by their buyers: no nightclubs. But with the real-estate market soaring the way it was, how could they lose?"

And another choice description:

"In his office, prosecutors would charge, Follieri kept ecclesiastical garments. And, according to the complaint, on at least one occasion, he persuaded a monsignor to wear them, to appear as a more senior clergyman, apparently to impress prospective investors. One former staffer explains, however, that Follieri kept an altar at the office so that visiting church officials could celebrate Mass. 'The cardinal or bishop who was in the office … would put on the vestments to do that.' Perhaps, says the staffer, the confusion arose when the officiator was a lower-ranked monsignor. 'There’s a monsignor’s outfit that has a sash on it like a bishop’s does, and a cassock that isn’t red [like a cardinal’s] but violet.' But if he wasn’t misleading people, Follieri clearly knew which props to use to create the right effects. The altar was one. The Filipino nun in full habit at the receptionist’s desk was another. Then there was that document from the Vatican. One person to whom it was shown says it authorized Follieri to act as the Vatican’s man in America. But … did it? And did Follieri really say that? One former staffer notes that there was a document, which was in Italian. 'He was showing it to people who didn’t speak Italian.' The staffer laughs. 'He was very good at working with implications and allowing them to take a life of their own.'"

Out of curiosity, this morning I called Terry Donilon, the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, to see if the archdiocese, which has closed scores of parishes and schools in recent years, had any dealings with Follieri. Donilon said that Follieri had approached the archdiocese, seeking to purchase real estate, but that the archdiocese had chosen not to make any deals with him.

(Photo above shows Raffaello Follieri with Anne Hathaway on Feb. 3, 2008 at the Miss Sixty fashion show during fashion week in New York. Photo by Brian McDermott for AP.)