Dana Giacchetto may not have been a household name in most parts of the country, but there was a time when he was spoken of in hushed tones in Hollywood’s most elite circles.
During his prime, Giacchetto – a stockbroker who was thought to be an investing wunderkind – earned the confidence of such A-listers as Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Winona Ryder.
Not only did they entrust him with their fortunes, many embraced him as a friend.
DiCaprio was so close with Giachetto that he often bunked at the high-flying stockbroker’s SoHo loft when he visiting New York.
Stars loved him, and why wouldn’t they?
Giacchetto made them millions while partying harder than some of Hollywood’s best-known hedonists.
His understanding of the market was legendary; his love of partying moreso.
However, Giachetto’s carefully crafted facade began to crumble in 1999, when investigations revealed that he was simply orchestrating a high-end Ponzi scheme – living the high life on his clients’ dime, then replacing the money with funds invested by new victims.
In 2000, Giacchetto admitted to stealing upwards of $ 10 million from the personal investment accounts of several of his clients, including Courteney Cox and Matt Damon.
After being arrested and released on $ 1 million bond, he attempted to flee the country, but was apprehended at Newark Airport with a doctored passport, 80 plane tickets and $ 4,000 in small bills.
He was sentenced to 57 months in prison, and served just over two years behind bars.
Throughout his life, friends say, Giacchetto seemed destined for a bad end.
Sadly, he fulfilled that destiny on Sunday night, when according to The New York Daily News, he was “found face up in bed and foaming at the mouth” after a weekend of hard-partying that culminated in a scuffle with security guards outside of a Manhattan nightclub.
Giacchetto, 53, was pronounced dead on the scene.
No cause of death was given, but friends and family suspect Giacchetto’s hard-partying ways finally caught up with him.
Sadly, the father of two seemed to have learned little from his brush with the law.
In 2014, he received two years probation for using someone else’s credit card to “pay for food, liquor, travel, moving and dentistry.”
His final days seem to have been filled with the kind of debauchery that characterized his time at the top.
The Hollywood elite may not be rushing to eulogize Giacchetto – but it seems certain that they’ll never forget him.
