A wealthy Manhattan woman says a tanning salon employee she married duped her out of $700,000 (N112 million) , telling her he needed the money to pay off gambling debts.
In reality, Steven Lalicata’s “gambling debt” was a girlfriend in New Jersey who liked to be showered with jewelry and presents, according to court papers.
Now burned bride Candice Feinberg Lalicata, 39, is suing her sneaky spouse, his girlfriend and the friends who allegedly helped con her for $10 million (N1.6 billion).
The schemers led Lalicata “to believe that her husband, Steven Lalicata, whom she had recently married, owed large gambling debts to members of organized crime. Through a series of coordinated communications, they led her to believe physical well-being would be in jeopardy if she did not make huge amounts of cash available to him on short notice,” her Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit says.
“That was a ruse,” the filing says. “Steven Lalicata was stealing the money to live a double life.”
Lalicata was using the money to further his “sexual relationship with a woman named Diana Fernandez,” lavishing gifts on her and going on trips and junkets with her and his cousin, the suit says.
“I am concerned that these people may pray on other victims,” Candice Feinberg Lalicata said.
“I believe that they brought me and my young son into their confidences solely, from the get go, to steal as much as they could from me.”
The divorced mom of a five-year-old boy said she first met Lalicata in April of 2010, when he was working for Beach Bum Tanning Salon on the Upper West Side.
He “immediately started to make amorous advances to then-Candice Feinberg,” the suit says. “The two started dating and became sexually active.”
It was then that Lalicata learned his galpal had recently cashed in on a trust fund from her father, Herbert Feinberg, a financial and garment industry exec who is one of the inventors of seamless panties, the suit says.
He turned up the charm – befriending her young son and popping the question within months, the suit says.
They were married on March 29, 2011, and all seemed well until the fall, when Lalicata started “disappearing for long periods of time without an explanation,” the suit says.
He would “often only return after 6 a.m. or not at all for a period of days,” the suit says.
He eventually told his wife the “truth” – that “the reason he had been repeatedly missing was that he had been gambling and now owed large debts” to “individuals connected with organized crime in Brooklyn who would hurt him if he did not pay,” the suit says.
“I’m in big trouble Candice,” he said in one text, according to the suit.
His story was backed up by one of Lalicata’s cousins and a friend, and the worried wife “started a process of wiring large amounts of money” to her hubby so he could get away from the mob, the filing says
She paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars – but it wasn’t enough, the papers say. In April, he told her he still owed $200,000 – but could get the mobsters off his back with another $150,000.
She told him she’d need to mortgage her home in upstate Sullivan County to come up with the cash – and that they’d have to move there.
Steven agreed, saying the money would “solve his problems and they could focus on being a family, including having a baby,” the suit says.
When she got the cash, the hubby then had somebody pose as a mobster outside the bank, the suit says.
The couple got into the “mobster’s” car. He counted the money, and then called someone to say, “I got it. It’s all here.” The tough then turned to the wife and said, “I don’t ever want to see this guy again,” the suit says.
That night, after the couple “further consummated the marriage” at the Sullivan County home, Lalicata told his wife he was going downstairs because he was having problems sleeping – and disappeared again.
She found out a few days later that “Lalicata and Diana Fernandez traveled on vacation to the Dominican Republic.”
She hired a private eye, and discovered her hubby had an “ongoing sexual relationship” with Fernandez, the suit says. Instead of paying off the mob, he’d been using her money to shop at Bloomingdale’s, Louis Vuitton and Cartier, paying for Fernandez’s “jewelry, luxury goods, home furnishings and travel.”
She also found out that they and Lalicata’s cousin had gone on trips to Las Vegas “and possibly other destinations.”
She tried to get her hubby to admit to the fraud on tape when she was wired in July of 2012, but he seduced her at the W Hotel into having sex – so he could destroy the wire, the suit says.
The wife also texted Fernandez, 30, who admitted to having a relationship with her husband – including graphically describing a sex act she said Lalicita had performed on her, the suit says.
Fernandez later filed a harassment claim against the wife, court papers say.
The wife was charged criminally, but the case was dismissed earlier this year, said her lawyer, Adam Perlmutter.
The suit seeks repayment of the $744,105 that the wife says she was swindled out of, as well as $10 million in damages from Fernandez, Lalicata and their friends for false arrest and fraud.
Steven Lalicata, who the suit says is living with his mom in Astoria, could not be reached for comment.
Fernandez’s lawyer, Oscar Holt, denied his client was involved in any wrongdoing.
“She had nothing to do with anything that happened between the husband and Ms. Lalicata. She had nothing to do with any scheme, if there was a scheme,” Holt said.
He also denied that his client was romantically involved with Lalicata. “She just knows him. They’re friends,” he said.
The lawsuit was filed this past spring. A Manhattan judge denied Fernandez’s bid to have the lawsuit thrown out last week.
Perlmutter said he was “pleased” by the judge’s decision.
The filing says Candice is seeking to get an annulment.