Prosecutor Drops Charges Against Reported Cocaine and Hooker Fan, Fiat Heir Lapo Elkann
Elkann now wants to just move past the event.
Prosecutors in New York called off charges against Fiat Heir Lapo Elkann Wednesday that stated he falsely reported his own kidnapping in November in an attempt to collect ransom money, reports said.
According to Reuters, the 39-year-old planned out a fake abduction after he went broke following a drug-filled party escapade. The Manhattan District Attorney's office told Reuters Wednesday it would not be prosecuting the case but would not provide any more information on the matter.
Elkann's defense lawyer told Reuters his client was happy justice triumphed in the case.
"The District Attorney's Office conducted a thorough and exhaustive investigation and determined my client had not done anything criminally," Elkann's lawyer Randy Zelin said. Zelin also explained to Reuters that the earlier reports on Elkann's situation were "false news."
In November, Elkann went to the New York Police Department to claim that he had been kidnapped in an apartment in Manhattan for more than 24 hours. According to Reuters, Elkann met up with a 29-year-old man via an online escort service and did drugs with him before making the report.
Elkann and his older brother, Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann, are the grandsons of the late Gianni Agnelli and the heirs to the FCA throne. Though Elkann isn't working in any official capacity at Fiat, he remains on the board of directors at Ferrari—another FCA brand. In 2005, Lapo had a close call with death when he overdosed and collapsed in transsexual prostitute's apartment, Reuters reports.
Elkann now wants to move past the whole event. "I want the wind at his back," Zelin told Reuters. "Look at him as the creative, brilliant and philanthropic person that he is."
