Andres Santo Domingo Pleads Guilty In 2011 Hit-And-Run; Victim Sues For $100 million

Billionaire Pleads Guilty To Hit And Run; Sued For $100 Million

The billionaire heir to a Colombian beer fortune pled guilty Monday to a Manhattan hit-and-run, giving momentum to his victim's $100 million lawsuit against him.

Andres Santo Domingo-- husband to Vogue contributing editor, founder of ModaOperandi.com and New York socialite Lauren Santo Domingo-- turned himself into cops and pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge in the March 2011 incident.

Santo Domingo was driving his Mercedes across the intersection of 34th Street and 3rd Avenue when he struck a pedestrian, Ryan Coutu. The driver's-side mirror hit Coutu in the elbow and the rear wheel ran over his foot. Santo Domingo then sped off. According to Forbes, "The victim was left with herniated disks in his back and needing elbow surgery."

Santo Domingo will have to do six days community service and isn't permitted to drive for 90 days, The New York Post reports.

The real punishment, however, could come from Coutu's multi-million dollar lawsuit. If $100 million seems a little much for getting your foot run over, Coutu's lawyer, Herb Subin, would like to remind you that "in order to punish a billionaire, anything else is a rounding error.”

“It’s crazy," Santo Domingo said of the lawsuit. "It’s the car insurance handling it."

Santo Domingo's father, Julio Mario Santo Domingo, whose estimated net worth was $8.5 billion, died in 2011.

"This is a rich, spoiled guy," Subin said of Santo Domingo, calling him out for leaving the scene of an accident. "He just left [Coutu] there."

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Julio Mario Santo Domingo was worth $6.5 billion, and implied that he was still alive.

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