‘Barney’ trouble
A married heir to the nearly billion-dollar Barneys retail fortune claims his mistress was a gold digger who tried to extort him for millions. But the woman says she truly loved him — until his wife showed up.
Robert Pressman, whose grandfather Barney Pressman founded the famed clothing store in 1923, met brunette beauty Anna Purcell at the Ritz Carlton in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in April, and by all accounts, fell head over heels in love.
He wined and dined the North Carolina mom, and tried to impress her by claiming “he had an IQ of over 200, that he worked for Mossad . . . and he hinted at having various connections in the US Government and with certain questionable and dangerous parties,” Purcell, 38, said in a Brooklyn federal court lawsuit she filed against Pressman last month.
Pressman, who along with his siblings sold the family interest in Barneys in 2004 for more than $937 million, told Purcell he was single, she alleges in court papers.
As their whirlwind courtship unfolded, he lavished her with vacations and Broadway shows, and shelled out $127,300 for a Cartier engagement ring; $40,000 for a Jeep Grand Cherokee; and more than $15,000 for a black-faced Rolex, sapphire earrings, a 22-diamond ring and other baubles, Pressman claims in a Connecticut lawsuit he filed against Purcell.
By August, Pressman told his photographer wife that he wanted a divorce, and he and Purcell moved into a $17,000-a-month, 9,000-square-foot rental home in tony Greenwich, Conn., with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, according to his legal filing.
Purcell claims Pressman even inked a contract from his company, Triton Equity, promising to provide for her.
But just two days after Purcell moved into the Greenwich manse, Pressman had a stroke.
Purcell answered an incapacitated Pressman’s cellphone in the hospital — and was shocked to find his wife, Mallory Samson, on the line, according to Purcell’s lawsuit.
“My client did not discover until the 59th minute of the 11th hour that he was in fact married,” said her lawyer, Bernard Kleinman, who filed a lawsuit seeking to force Pressman to live up to his contractual promises.
But Pressman insists it was Purcell who was the cold-hearted con.
Instead of getting Pressman to a doctor, Purcell “ignored a very serious situation,” and left the house for hours, even recording a nearly two-minute video of Pressman “sleeping and twitching on the bed,” he charges in his lawsuit.
Pressman finally managed to call 911 himself despite suffering two strokes.
Once he was hospitalized, Purcell allegedly cleaned out Pressman’s cash, including $7,000 in the house and $5,000 in his wallet, he charged.
After he dumped her, Pressman claims Purcell made a host of bra- zen demands, including that he purchase a phone, laptop and Mustang for her teenage son and pay for two years worth of rent on the Greenwich estate. He denies offering her any contract. A copy of the purported document included in the court file is unsigned.
She also threatened to go public with the affair unless she was paid $12 million, Pressman charges in court papers.
Pressman’s accusations are a “total fabrication,” Kleinman insisted.
The businessman is “actively investigating” Purcell, said his lawyer, Philip Russell.
After she met Pressman, Purcell paid off the mortgage on the North Carolina home she shared with her long-term boyfriend, according to his lawsuit.
Purcell never intended to marry Pressman, he charges in his court papers. Instead she was “playing a part in a scheme to defraud him” for the benefit of herself and her boyfriend, Pressman claims.