This scam artist was dubbed the 'worst boyfriend' in New York. Now he's headed to prison.

By Lukas I. Alpert

Nelson Counne made women believe he was a jet-setting bon vivant. Prosecutors said he was a con man who stole $1.8 million from his girlfriends.

On the surface, Nelson Counne appeared to be a well-to-do Romeo, romancing women in the toniest vales of New York City's Upper East Side with tales of world travel, art collecting and bold investments.

But prosecutors said he was really a dead-broke con man who lived off his lovers' largesse, earning him the distinction of the "worst boyfriend on the Upper East Side" in the pages of the New Yorker.

On Tuesday, the 71-year-old Counne was sentenced to four to eight years in New York state prison for conning five of his girlfriends out of $1.8 million. Counne had pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges of grand larceny and scheming to defraud.

"Nelson Counne used an expertly crafted persona and elaborate web of lies to convince women to hand over their savings," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. "At least five women were conned into pouring money into his supposed investment opportunities - while unknowingly helping him to repay previous victims and lure in new ones."

A message left with Counne's attorney wasn't immediately returned.

Prosecutors said that from 2012 until 2021, Counne - who sometimes went by the names Nelson Roth or Justin Roth - would meet his unsuspecting victims on dating sites aimed at people ages 50 and over. Well-dressed and sporting a shock of elegant silver hair, Counne would meet the women for dinners at the Carlyle Hotel and posh restaurants on the Upper East Side.

Counne purported to be a jet-setting art collector and investor with real-estate holdings around the world in places like London, Florida and Saint Tropez, as well as an apartment overlooking Central Park. Prosecutors said it was all a lie, and that Counne didn't even have a passport.

Soon, prosecutors said, Counne would begin trying to talk his paramours into investing in a variety of schemes that he claimed couldn't fail. He'd be purposefully vague about the details, sometimes telling the women that the investment existed in a "gray area between legal and illegal," and sometimes hinting he had access to inside information, prosecutors said.

Among the purported investments that Counne claimed he had an inside line into were Alibaba (HK:9988), around the time the Chinese online merchant was preparing to go public. He also claimed to be involved in a start-up company run by a former Google (GOOGL) (GOOG) executive, prosecutors said.

After convincing the women to hand over their money, prosecutors said Counne would often claim he needed more money after the initial investments to help smooth over some wrinkle, according to court filings.

The investments were bogus, and the money was used only to line Counne's pockets and to pay back some of his earlier targets, prosecutors said.

Counne faces similar charges in Connecticut involving a wealthy woman in Greenwich, court records show.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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06-25-24 1736ET

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