KIPS BAY — A scion of the Fiat Automobiles family has been charged with faking his own kidnapping, police said.
Lapo Elkann, 39, the grandson of former Fiat CEO Gianni Agnelli and co-founder of high-end eyewear company Italia Independent, was arrested Sunday morning around 2 a.m. after he had called his family claiming he was being ransomed by his captor, police said.
Elkann had told his family Saturday evening that the woman holding him would injure him unless she was paid $10,000, according to police and a Daily News report.
Officers tracked him down to the NYCHA-managed Strauss Houses at 344 E. 28 St. and found him walking outside the building with a 29-year-old woman, police said.
Elkann was later charged with filing a false report and given a desk appearance ticket, police said. He is expected to return to court in January 2017.
Elkann has no prior charges in New York City, police said, but Vanity Fair reported that Elkann overdosed on cocaine and heroin in the apartment of a transgender prostitute in Turin in 2005.
“I am very pissed off with myself because I made a huge mistake,” Elkann told Vanity Fair. “But nobody’s perfect.”
A representative from Elkann’s company did not immediately respond to request for comment.
