Florida financier Julian Rubinstein is fighting back after Rao’s regular Charles Gargano told us Rubinstein’s story that he bought Gargano’s Rao’s table for charity — then was stiffed — is full of baloney.
“I was dismayed that Gargano is calling me a liar,” snapped American Asset Management head Rubinstein, who said he bought Gargano’s table at impossible-to-get-into Italian joint Rao’s at a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society auction last year for $2,500.
But he told us that when he was told to contact former ambassador Gargano to book a date, “He offered me a table nine months away . . . then he called and canceled as he said I did not pay enough” in the auction.
(Gargano responded last week: “This guy did not buy the table . . . He bought it from someone else.” He added Rubinstein’s recollection was “totally untrue,” and explained he only auctions off his table once per year and that when he was contacted by Rubinstein, “I thought he was someone else. He did not get that table from me.”)
The red-sauce row thickened when Rubinstein shot back: “I researched my emails and found that Nick Mastroianni III — who was running for and won [Leukemia & Lymphoma Society] man of the year — got Gargano to donate the table.” Mastroianni III’s dad, Nicholas Mastroianni II, is president of US Immigration Fund, where Gargano’s executive director. “Nick provided all of Gargano’s contact info — I certainly didn’t get Gargano’s cell number from Google,” Rubinstein said.
When reached for comment, Mastroianni III explained Gargano did donate his Rao’s table to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society — but it was a misunderstanding. “I helped out with a few different auction items,” he said. “The issue with the table was it was accidentally given to two different charities.” Gargano had already promised the table to another cancer organization, he said.
When that charity redeemed the table first, “the second guy called, and he was like, ‘What? We’ve already done this.’ ”
It’s just the latest Rao’s rumble after a Long Island broker accused Bo Dietl of never forking over his table bought at an auction.