Lover of late casino mogul sues estate for support

Saturday, Jan. 6, 2001 | 12:45 p.m.

Arthur Goldberg, 58, was president and CEO of Park Place Entertainment, the biggest player in the casinos in both Las Vegas and Atlantic City. He died Oct. 17 of complications from bone marrow failure.

Stefania Santacroce, 41, said in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Newark that Goldberg vowed to take care of her for the rest of her life. She is asking a jury to award her a fair share of the estate. No dollar amount is mentioned in the suit, which was filed Friday.

Goldberg and Santacroce, then a principal in a wholesale jewelry business, met in December 1998. Goldberg had been estranged from his wife, Veronica, since 1995, according to the suit.

Santacroce eventually moved into Goldberg's mansion on a 22-acre estate in New Vernon in Harding Township, Morris County.

Santacroce's lawsuit also says Goldberg was transferring money to her name and was buying her an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

She is claiming that his estate is now reneging on that unwritten bequest.

"She is not some opportunist," Santacroce's lawyer Michael Rosenbaum told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday's editions. "She was there for him and loved him when no one else did... She gave up her life to be with him."

The suit says Goldberg announced a little more than a year ago that the couple would get married. After a party at the exclusive New York restaurant Le Cirque, they flew to Italy to meet Santacroce's family members.

But soon after that, the casino executive's health began to fail.