Raffaello Follieri was in the news as Anne Hathaway’s boyfriend, the beautiful actress and fashion model. She was in love with him but it was a fake Follieri she was soon to learn. He made himself out to be a wealthy Italian real estate developer. He was very controversial, had been the subject of a lawsuit by billionaire Ron Burkle for embezzling funds and turned out to be a fraud. He used other’s money to take Anne Hathaway on shopping sprees, to take care of their Labrador, and to wine and dine her on extravagant trips.

Vati-Con was the nickname given to the scandal involving Follieri when he was accused and later plead guilty to misappropriating a $50 million in the investment from Ron Burkle which was falsly claimed to have been used to buy Roman Catholic churches in the United States

On July 24, 2008, in a second raid of Follieri's apartment in New York City, the FBI confiscated the private journals of Anne Hathaway as part of their ongoing investigation into the scandal.