Between the time Buti began fund-raising in 1994 and his resignation from the business last summer, he raised a total of approximately $30 million, an exorbitant amount for a group of entities that owned only three restaurants, in New York, London (in receivership), and New Orleans (closed), and opened only four franchises, in Barcelona (closed), Jakarta, Manila, and Mexico City. That sum seems even more staggering when you consider where it did not go. "It was not in the operational budget," says a former executive, who recalled how staff paychecks often bounced. "We were forever struggling -- to be able to hire good people, to pay for our resources, even to keep up our business-magazine subscriptions. We had suppliers who would not deliver unless we paid cash."

"Buti ended up selling like 400 percent of the business, and that's how he got into trouble," says a former associate. "Everything's fine if the deal bombs right away, because none of the investors ask for their money back. But if it works for a while, then people start showing up and asking to see the books." In less than three years of existence, the restaurant was sued repeatedly. Plaintiffs include such heavyweights as Rockefeller Center, which sued for six months of back rent and utilities, and the law firm Pavia & Harcourt, which sued for $400,000 in unpaid bills.

Records excerpted in the suits brought by Buti's partners state that in 1996, Fashion Cafe made "payments and/or loans" of $670,000 to an entity called Francesco Tommaso Ventures and "payments and/or loans" to Daniela Pestova of $480,000. According to one suit, in 1996 the company paid Buti $260,000; in 1997 it paid him $305,000 and, mysteriously, threw in an additional $85,000 to his Miami restaurant, Mezzaluna. That same year, an entity called Daniela Pestova Entertainment received "payments and/or loans" of $700,000.

Valerio Morabito's records show that his corporations wired more than $3 million of their $9 million investment in the Fashion Cafe entities into non-Fashion Cafe bank accounts in Zurich and Lugano -- transfers the suit alleges were made "at the Butis' explicit direction." According to a sworn affidavit by another former partner's accountant, Buti also ran up millions in expenses.

Although the Fashion Cafe partnership agreement entitled Buti to $250,000 in annual income and .05 percent of the annual gross profits of the company (in 1996, this percentage amounted to only $3,000), he spent $57,000 of the company's money on two leased Mercedeses so that he and his brother could be squired around town in style (both had drivers, also on the company dole), $43,000 on garage bills, and $132,000 on cellular-phone bills. According to the affidavit, Buti also received more than $1 million in repayment for alleged advances to the company, including tens of thousands of dollars in "petty cash" expenses.

Buti insists he is being unfairly tarred. His lawyer Judd Burstein describes his client as an "easy target" and argues that -- appearances to the contrary -- the evidence against Buti doesn't amount to much. "What you have," he tells me, "is a one-sided account with documents taken out of context and trumpeted as the gospel, when the whole story is very different." According to Burstein, that story's protagonist is a generous, high-living if naïve foreigner who had no financial background but ultimately only his investors' best interests at heart. "He was not versed in the formalities of American business law," insists Burstein.

"I think it's fair to say that in his mind, moving moneys through various corporate accounts to meet cash-flow needs was not improper. And I think from a moral perspective it wasn't, because there was no intent to defraud or do anything other than save the company." As for the $700,000 of "payments and/or loans" made to DP Entertainment in 1997, Burstein says: "Tommaso's wife was committed to helping her husband, and so at a later time when there was cash available, the moneys were repaid."