Candice Lalicata has won a lawsuit against her estranged husband, who she says swindled her out of $700,000.
A former tanning salon worker who allegedly swindled his wife out of more than $700,000 has gotten burned, big time.
A Manhattan judge on Wednesday ordered a default judgment against Steven Lalicata after he couldn’t be bothered to respond to his estranged wife Candice’s $10 million lawsuit against him.
A hearing will be scheduled for later this year for state Supreme Court Justice Anil Singh to determine how much Lalicata will have to pay for allegedly conning his wife out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Lalicata said that when they lived together on the Upper East Side, he needed the money for “gambling debts” but actually was spending the money on a mistress and at strip clubs.
“He was throwing $100 bills around in the Riviera” on Steinway St. in Queens, and also frequented another club called Perfections, Candice Lalicata told the Daily News.
“I would have had more respect for him if he had gone to decent strip clubs with better-looking strippers,” she said.
Candice said she was “thrilled” by Singh’s ruling — and mad that she ever trusted Steven and his friends in the first place.
Her lawyer, Adam Perlmutter said of Steven, “He can run, but he can’t hide.”
The divorced mom said she first met Lalicata in April 2010, when he was working for Beach Bum Tanning Salon on the Upper West Side.
Candice, 39, says Steven, 30, swept her off her feet after finding out she had a large trust fund, and doted on her young son, Noah.
They tied the knot in Las Vegas in March 2011 — but by that fall, Steven started disappearing for extended periods of time.
He told his wife he was “in trouble,” and deep in gambling debt with the mob, court papers say. Two of his friends helped convince Candice he was telling the truth, and that he could be killed if he didn’t pay up, filings say. She gave him a total of $744,000 — only to later discover what he was really doing with the cash.
Steven didn’t show much remorse. Candice said he emailed a picture of himself giving the finger with the message, “Ha ha, you’re broke now.”
The only defendant to respond to the suit, Steven’s girlfriend, Diana Fernandez, has denied any wrongdoing.
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