anne hathawayAnne Hathaway’s ex-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri faces at least four years in jail after pleading guilty to 14 counts of fraud yesterday.

The Italian businessman was arrested in June on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering dating and has been on remand in New York since then as he could not afford the $21million bail guarantee. He is said to have requested to be allowed to enter the plea earlier than anticipated due to “unspecified inmate issues” related to his holding cell.

Follieri was accused of operating a scheme between 2005 and 2007 to purchase properties in the US from the Catholic Church. He was also suspected of misappropriating between $2-6million of investors’ money.

In a statement he read out in the court yesterday, he explained: “I wired money from a New York bank to the Vatican bank in Rome to promote my relationship with the Vatican.

“I did not have investor authorization to use the money that way. I knew what I was doing was wrong.”

Sentencing will take place on 3rd October, with the possibility of up to 20 years in prison for the most serious charges.