Former 'Broker to the Stars' Gets Out of Prison
February 6, 2003
By Colleen DeBaise
Dow Jones Newswires
NEW YORK -- Former "broker to the stars" Dana Giacchetto has won an early release from federal prison.
Mr. Giacchetto, who adopted the glamourous, club-hopping lifestyle of his Hollywood A-List clients before his April 2000 arrest on fraud charges, recently got two years wiped off his nearly five-year prison sentence.
"He was a model prisoner," explains his lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti.
Mr. Giacchetto rose to Tinseltown prominence in the late 1990s, when he parlayed friendships with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Ben Affleck and others into a lucrative investment advisory business. But the high-flying life ended when he was charged and later convicted of swindling his luminary clients out of nearly $10 million.
According to his lawyer, Mr. Giacchetto was picked up last Thursday by his longtime fiancee, Allegra Brosco, at the prison in Allenwood, Pa., and driven to a halfway house in the Bronx, N.Y., which will be his home for the next six months. He'll be permitted to work at a regular job, but, alas, he's "not allowed to go out to dinner or the movies," Mr. Fischetti said.
Already, rumors are swirling about a book deal, appearances on late-night comedy shows, and renewed friendships with Leo and others.
Mr. Fischetti wouldn't comment except to say Mr. Giacchetto has received "a number of letters and calls of support" from friends and celebrities. Mr. Giacchetto, incidentally, blamed many of his missteps on drug problems, and got one year off his sentence because he was admitted into a drug rehabilitation program.
What's ahead for the one-time money manager, who at his February 2001 sentencing tearfully said he "crashed and burned?"
"He is an extremely intelligent young man who I think -- when this is all behind him -- will go back to being someone who is very successful in the entertainment world," Mr. Fischetti predicts.
Advising stars about their money is no longer an option for Mr. Giacchetto, who ran the firm Cassandra Group. He has been permanently barred from the investment business by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
-Colleen DeBaise, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-201
smartmoney.com
He is a dumbass that should be selling used cars.
Jack |
