Actress Gina Lollobrigida’s son has slammed a ‘toyboy’ for embezzling £9 million from the Italian film legend before she died in January aged 95.
Milko Skofic described Andrea Piazzolla, who was jailed for three years, as ‘heartless’ and revealed how the cunning fraudster had even forbidden him from seeing his dying mum.
Convicted of brainwashing
Piazzolla, 36, was convicted of ‘brainwashing’ and defrauding Lollobrigida, who rose to prominence in the 1960s as the ‘world’s most beautiful woman’ and appeared in scores of films opposite actors such as Sean Connery and Tony Curtis.
Piazzolla, described as a ‘toyboy’ by Italian media, swindled Lollobrigida out of £9million worth of property, cash, cars and jewellery from 2013 to 2018 while working as her assistant, a court in Rome heard.
He cared for Lollobrigida in her final years and even moved in with the actress at her Rome villa, where he allegedly bought sports cars for hundreds of thousands of pounds with the actress’s money before selling them.
How he was found guilty
He was found guilty on Monday of taking advantage of Lollobrigida’s age and vulnerability to con her out of the vast majority of her estate.
Mr Skofic, 65, told Italian TV host Bruno Vespa: ‘The first time I saw my mother in years, was when she was on her deathbed, and she was very emotional.
‘She told she had done everything wrongs as she shook her head, I was with my son Dimitri as we spoke.’
He added: ‘I had expected the sentence, Piazzolla was heartless towards my mother and the evidence against him was heavy and concrete.’
Describing how he was forbidden from seeing his mother he said: ‘I couldn’t speak with her because either I called and Piazzolla was there and my mother spoke on speakerphone, or he answered.
‘The problem is that I was thrown out, I was not allowed to enter the house and see my mother. But before that I was often with her, we lived close together.
‘I wasn’t allowed to talk to her and he in turn told her I wanted to have her committed so it looked as if all I wanted was her money but in reality I wanted to check on what he was spending her money on.’
When asked if he had been a good son, he replied: ‘Yes, the problem is that I was kicked out by him and so it made the relationship with my mother difficult, I wasn’t allowed to see her, he wouldn’t let me.’
The court in Rome heard how he swindled her out of property, including an apartment in the city and one in Montecarlo, plus a house in Tuscany, cars, jewellery and cash, between 2013 and 2018 when he worked for her.
