Stop me before I shop again!
Pretend princess Antoinette Millard is showing some real gall: She’s suing American Express for $2 million for allowing her to go on a nearly $1 million shopping spree she couldn’t afford at some of the city’s priciest stores.
Millard, who’s currently awaiting trial for insurance fraud, says she was “induced” into dropping more than $950,000 at stores such as Cartier, Chatila and Barneys when the company offered her its prestigious “black card,” the virtually no-limit Centurion Card.
The celebrity-set status symbol is only offered to customers who charge more than $150,000 a year and carries a $2,500 annual fee.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Millard maintains AmEx “improperly solicited [her] for the Centurion Card although the [company] knew or should have known that [Millard] did not qualify for the Centurion Card.”
Not being able to afford the card didn’t stop Millard, 40, from going on a months-long spending spree, snapping up jewelry and other baubles at a pace that quickly became frenzied. In May 2003, she spent $27,900 at Cellini, and then spent more than $1,000 at Bulgari just two days later.
But by December, that was chump change.
On Dec. 1, she spent $19,000 at Cartier, and then $150,000 at Kaufmann de Suisse.
The next day, she dropped $53,378.33 at Barneys, and on Dec. 3, she spent $42,000 at Chatila and $24,169.06 at J. Mendel Furriers.
The next day, she went back to the high-end Chatila jewelry store – and spent another $73,000.
In court papers, Millard says she shouldn’t have to pay any of those charges because she was overcome by shopping fever.
“When [Millard] entered into the contracts . . . she was acting impulsively and irrationally to such an extent as to make her mentally incompetent and irresponsible for her actions,” says her filing, which responds to a suit by AmEx aimed at collecting the $950,000.
Millard’s filing says she “was suffering from anorexia, depression, panic attacks, [and] head tumors,” and the credit-card giant “knew or should have known that [she] was acting impulsively and irrationally.”
That argument hasn’t moved American Express, which got a court order this week to freeze her assets.
The company said the move was necessary because she’d tried to sell off and exchange some of her jewelry, which might technically belong to AmEx now.
The judge presiding over the case, Barbara Kapnick, is allowing Millard to hold on to one piece of jewelry, a blue sapphire wedding ring.
Millard and jewelry are apparently a bad mix. She’s currently out on $100,000 bail for allegedly trying to bilk an insurance company out of $262,000 by claiming a mugger had stolen her family jewels.
Prosecutors charge there was no mugging, and Millard had sold more than half the 23 pieces she claimed were stolen.
By the time of her arrest, Millard had made a splash on the social scene as “Princess Antoinette,” a tiara-wearing member of the Saudi royal family and a former Victoria’s Secret model.
But prosecutors discovered Millard’s claim was a fairy tale, and that she was really a divorcée from Buffalo who worked at a Wall Street firm.
She’s due back in court on her criminal case next month.
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‘Royal’ pain
Cartier #18 (jewelry/clock/silver): $78,891.62
Cartier #18: $14,349.37
Kaufmann De Suisse (jewelry/clock/silver): $67,348.00
Kaufmann De Suisse: $43,450.00
Kaufmann De Suisse: $26,157.00
Barneys New York: $53,378.33
Chatila (jewelry): $2,000.00
J. Mendel (fur shop): $24,169.06
Chatila (jewelry): $73,000.00
The Golden Basket (jewelry/gifts): $25,150.00
Previous balance: $498,759
Payment Activity: 0
New Activity $ Inc. Adjustments: $451,585.69
New Balance: $950,345.58