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- I.J.
CREDIT-CARD GRIFTER HAD GAY OL’ TIME: DA
New York Post - 11.18.09
by REUVEN FENTON and KELLY MAGEE
A TriBeCa Caterer went on a $361,000 spending spree with his boyfriend's credit card while the pair shared a love nest at the tony Ritz-Carlton - splurging on such goodies as spa treatments, personal shoppers and dog-walkers, prosecutors said yesterday.
Carl Butcho, 26, who runs the trendy TriBeCa Chef, allegedly passed himself off as the heir to a large fortune as he racked up bills on the corporate card of his beau, an Ernst & Young employee.
He spent weeks between August and September 2007 ringing up charges, including renting limos and scooping up luxury goods via the Ritz's personal-shopping service, authorities said.
"He told us he had a giant fortune," said the co-owner of the Greenwich Village eatery where Butcho recently worked before suddenly disappearing, saying he had intestinal cancer.
"He told us he lived in an $8 million apartment and was buying a $10 million apartment," said the restaurateur, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In addition to fleecing his then-boyfriend, Jason Warner, Butcho also scammed $8,000 from a dog-walker by having her charge expenses on her credit card, and then not reimbursing her, officials said.
The chef was held in lieu of $50,000 bond at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday. He is charged with two counts of Grand Larceny.
The suspect's lawyer, [from The Blanch Law Firm], called the charges "ridiculous," and blamed Warner for the mess, saying he was the one who signed the credit-card receipts, and is now trying to pin blame on Butcho.
A TriBeCa Caterer went on a $361,000 spending spree with his boyfriend's credit card while the pair shared a love nest at the tony Ritz-Carlton - splurging on such goodies as spa treatments, personal shoppers and dog-walkers, prosecutors said yesterday.
Carl Butcho, 26, who runs the trendy TriBeCa Chef, allegedly passed himself off as the heir to a large fortune as he racked up bills on the corporate card of his beau, an Ernst & Young employee.
He spent weeks between August and September 2007 ringing up charges, including renting limos and scooping up luxury goods via the Ritz's personal-shopping service, authorities said.
"He told us he had a giant fortune," said the co-owner of the Greenwich Village eatery where Butcho recently worked before suddenly disappearing, saying he had intestinal cancer.
"He told us he lived in an $8 million apartment and was buying a $10 million apartment," said the restaurateur, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In addition to fleecing his then-boyfriend, Jason Warner, Butcho also scammed $8,000 from a dog-walker by having her charge expenses on her credit card, and then not reimbursing her, officials said.
The chef was held in lieu of $50,000 bond at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday. He is charged with two counts of Grand Larceny.
The suspect's lawyer, [from The Blanch Law Firm], called the charges "ridiculous," and blamed Warner for the mess, saying he was the one who signed the credit-card receipts, and is now trying to pin blame on Butcho.
