Reports: Fiat dynasty scion arrested in US after sex and drugs party
Rome - A member of the Italian family who controls the Fiat-Chrysler car giant was briefly arrested in New York for faking his own kidnapping to raise money for a sex-and-drugs fest with a male escort, reports said Tuesday.
According to Italy's Corriere della Sera daily and the Daily Beast website, 39-year-old Lapo Elkann spent Thursday through Sunday with a prostitute, until his cash ran out.
He then pretended to have been kidnapped and asked his family to send him 10,000 dollars to keep partying.
The family contacted the New York Police Department, which uncovered the scam and accused Elkann of filing a false police report and ordered him to appear before a criminal court for arraignment, the Daily Beast said.
Elkann is the grandson of longtime Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli, who died in 2003, and brother of current Fiat-Chrysler chairman John Elkann.
He is known for his extravagant lifestyle and runs eyewear and car customisation businesses in Italy.
Once a marketing strategist for Fiat, Lapo was excluded from the family business in 2005 after another drug-fuelled incident with a transgender male prostitute in Turin that ended with him hospitalised with a cocaine overdose.
