2013 Daily Mail: Con man Raffaello Follieri pledged $50 million to the Clinton Global initiative, Doug Band introduced him to Bill Clinton 2013 Daily Mail: Con man Raffaello Follieri pledged $50 million to the Clinton Global initiative, Doug Band introduced him to Bill Clinton Con man Raffaello Follieri had many interesting connections and attempted connections: Doug Band, The Clintons, CGI, Anne Hathaway, John no name McCain, Terry McAlliffe, Pope John Paul II,  Ron Burkle, Davis Manafort Lobbying firm, http://archive.is/oK5UO  see source Daily Mail articlehere https://archive.is/jcyBQ An Italian con man man who romanced Anne Hathaway before spending 4-1/2 years in federal prison for fraud was knee-deep in the world of Bill and Hillary Clinton before his arrest and a catastrophic downfall, a new report reveals. Raffaello Follieri, whom federal prosecutors sent to prison in 2008 for defrauding his backers, accepted a $50 million investment three years earlier from the Yucaipa Group, where Bill Clinton was the senior adviser, The New Republic reports.  While the money was earmarked for buying properties from the Roman Catholic Church and converting them into commercial developments, Follieri spent much of it on himself and Hathaway. He also claimed to be the Vatican's chief financial officer at one point. 'With Band’s help,' according to the lengthy article, 'Follieri got meetings with, among others, Clinton himself, Burkle, and Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, aboard Slim’s yacht in the Sea of Cortez.' 'Slim declined to invest, but another introduction paid off: Through another Clinton contact, Keith Stein, Band hooked Follieri up with Michael Cooper, the head of Toronto-based Dundee Realty Corporation, who kicked in $6 million.' Burkle, a billionaire and long-time 'Friend Of Bill,' took a meeting with Follieri in 2005 and inked a deal to buy the church properties, based on the grifter's promise that he had special access at the Vatican. One year later, Yucaipa was suing for breach of contract. When that money came in, Follieri paid $400,000 to a shell company that Band had set up to allow businesses, including Yucaipa, to supplement his income so he (Band) could afford to work for Clinton on a relatively modest $110,000 salary. With that money in hand, Band and his brother Gregory made $4,600 contributions -- the maximum allowed at the time -- to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Band told The New Republic that he eventually repaid the $400,000 payoff, sending it to Cooper directly. But that development came in 2007, after Yucaipa sued Follieri and press inquiries began to percolate. In 2006, Follieri was also wooing at least one prominent Republican at the time: Arizona Sen. John McCain. A photograph published by the liberal magazine The Nation shows Follieri greeting guests while the senator walks up the gangplank of a yacht on his 70th birthday in 2006. Follieri had rented the boat for a month to sail the Adriatic Sea. McCain was in Montenegro as part of a congressional-delegation trip. A few months after McCain's yacht party,' The Nation reported, 'Follieri strengthened his ties to McCain's orbit by retaining Rick Davis's well-connected Washington lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, and offering Davis both an investment deal and help in securing the Catholic vote for McCain's presidential bid.' Once, at an annual meeting of the then-one-year-old Clinton Global Initiative, the former president seemed to give Follieri his own public imprimatur with an on-stage embrace. At the September 21, 2006 event, Clinton called the swindler to the stage and thanked him for a $50 million pledge, which was earmarked for vaccinating Honduran children against hepatitis A. 'Why anyone would allow him to get close to Clinton and be on a stage saying he’s going to give $50 million away?' one Clinton insider told Vanity Fair two years later, speaking of Band. 'It’s absolutely nuts.