A convicted con man who once bilked $10 million from a bevy of Hollywood stars is back in trouble – for allegedly racking up a relatively paltry $10,400 worth of booze, food and dental work on someone else’s credit card.
Dana Giacchetto, 50, dressed down in jeans, a checked shirt and blue blazer when he turned himself in at Manhattan federal court Thursday morning to face credit card and wire fraud charges.
“This is a bulls–t charge,” he barked outside court later after posting $150,000 bail.
His elderly mother, who helped pay his bail, cried in court and was later seen hugging her son when they got on an elevator after leaving the courtroom.
Giacchetto also posed as Steve Stanulis — a former NYPD officer turned stripper — when he used another person’s credit card to buy a plane ticket from Vegas to Newark Liberty airport in February 2013, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday.
The investigation into the fraudster – who did time for bilking clients such as Ben Affleck, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire out of $10 million – was launched in February, 2013 by cops in North Arlington, New Jersey.
A person identified only as “Victim 1” had reported phony charges on an American Express card, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, on Feb. 27, 2013, Giacchetto tried to make a transaction using the victim’s AmEx card for $208 on Priceline.com.
The card’s fraud protection system blocked the transaction, and the card owner was alerted.
The victim then reviewed previous statements and found other fraudulent charges for food and booze deliveries, dental work, moving expenses and the airline ticket.
The victim contacted one of the delivery services and learned that the goods had been shipped to an address in New York City that Jersey cops linked to Giacchetto.
The cops then interviewed a dentist, who identified the patient who used the victim’s card as Giacchetto.
The booze and liquor deliveries, the document states, came from unidentified stores in Brooklyn and were shipped to Giachetto’s New York address.
The papers also say that Giacchetto used the credit card to pay for moving expenses – but that the company later learned he was using a phony credit card when the charges were rejected.
They confronted him in an email, and he replied, “There was no fraud committed … I will give you another card, or wire you funds.”
The hustler then allegedly provided a second credit card number, which was also refused.
Giacchetto was charged with one count each of credit card fraud and wire fraud and faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted.
His lawyer, Ronald Fischetti, said the former New York City resident now lives with his elderly parents in Boston.
“He denies the charges and does not understand why he was charged,” Fischetti said outside court.
Giacchetto served three years of a nearly five-year sentence for bilking Affleck, Diaz, DiCaprio, Maguire and others.
Stanulis — who left the force in 2001 and just wrapped the movie “Sam” by Mel Brooks’ son Nicholas Brooks — said he has known Giacchetto since 1999, when the former money manager spotted him performing at Chippendales and hired him to run security for DiCaprio.
But Stanulis said Wednesday he had no idea why or how Giacchetto allegedly used his identity.
“Dana called me last week and said, ‘We might have a problem,’ and that there is an arrest warrant out in his name and mine. I know I didn’t do anything, so I made some calls and was told that he tried to use my name for ‘something significant’ in the last few months. But Dana couldn’t offer any explanation,” Stanulis said.
Stanulis, who is currently penning an autobiography, “Sex & the Shield,” said Giacchetto asked him to accompany him to court him but he refused.
Giacchetto, the 6-page criminal complaint states, is now the owner of a gourmet canned food company called “Taste.”