Fashion designer Donna Karan’s son-in-law is a scam artist who fleeced his partner in a private-jet business, denying the co-owner profits while raking in a $420,000 salary and using company coffers to buy himself a $500,000 Ferrari, a new lawsuit charges.
Gianpaolo de Felice, who is married to the designer’s daughter Gabby Karan de Felice, bought Zen Air with business partner David Zara in 2009.
Zara owns 20 percent of the company — which jets celebrities to the Caribbean, California and around the world — while de Felice controls 80 percent, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court
suit.
De Felice, a former Alitalia pilot who once manned the controls of his mother-in-law’s plane, ran the business.
While claiming it wasn’t profitable, he helped himself to the hefty salary but paid Zara nothing, the suit says.
He also allegedly lied to the IRS, claiming each partner took around $98,000 in distributions in 2009, even though de Felice pocketed the entire $196,000, the suit says.
He bought the Ferrari on the company dime in 2011 and told the IRS he spent 100 percent of his time running Zen Air, even though he was also operating restaurants in the Hamptons, according to court papers.
The debonair de Felice, a regular at charity events in the Hamptons, gave himself a salary hike in 2013 when the jet business’ revenues were down 20 percent, according to the lawsuit.
“Ironically, it was de Felice who was adamant that no salaries be paid to him or Zara — period,” says the suit, which seeks more than $7 million.
De Felice referred questions to his lawyer, Gary Redish, who declined to comment.
De Felice actually first filed suit against Zara in New Jersey this fall, seeking to remove his business partner, claiming Zara tried to lure clients away from the company for a competitor.
That ongoing suit says Zara, of Manhattan, is broke and owes creditors including the IRS, nearly $240,000.
“Zara has no known assets other than a boat (Boston Whaler with no engine) with an approximate value of $2,000,” according to de Felice’s New Jersey court papers.
Zara says he wanted to buy out his partner in 2015 because de Felice was “spending most of his time and energy on managing the restaurants in Sag Harbor and Southampton, and also opening a
third in Tribeca.”
De Felice and his wife run a chain of trendy Mediterranean restaurants called Tutto il Giorno.
Zara first learned that de Felice was bilking the business when he received copies of tax returns and financial reports earlier this year, the suit says.
Zara’s lawyer did not return a call for comment.