The ex-wife of German soccer great Lothar Matthaus has won permission from a Manhattan judge to sue her banker ex-boyfriend for having her arrested on theft charges, The Post has learned.
Ukrainian stunner Christina Matthaus spent a night in jail in 2014 when then-boyfriend Michael Hadjedj told cops she had gone on a $5,000 shopping spree with his American Express card following a “domestic dispute.”
“He thought it was all very funny and that he had stuck it to her,” said Matthaus’ lawyer, David Jaroslawicz.
But now Christina, 28, is the one laughing after the charges were dropped and she beat back her ex’s bid to toss her defamation lawsuit.
In a ruling released Tuesday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Nancy Bannon said the catwalker’s claims “meet the burden for malicious prosecution and false arrest” because her ex acted “with malice” in reporting her to police.
Hadjedj, who runs Manhattan-based finance firm United First Partners, had argued that he did nothing more “beyond simply filing a police report,” thus he could not be held responsible for Matthaus’ arrest.
But Bannon said Hadjedj “is alleged to have given false information to the police.”
Matthaus was accused of using her old flame’s credit card for a shopping spree at Bergdorf Goodman and to purchase airline tickets to Europe, where she was reportedly meeting another man before returning to New York.
When the news of the embarrassing incident broke, the resulting bad press damaged her career, according to her defamation suit for unspecified damages.
“Her agents will testify that certain jobs were canceled because of the adverse media attention that said she’d been arrested for stealing,” Jaroslawicz said.
Matthaus — who uses the professional moniker Liliana Nova — was married to World Cup champion soccer player Lothar Matthaus in 2008. The couple split in 2010.
The model now has her own accessories brand, called House of Nova.
Hadjedj’s lawyer, Martin Hyman, declined to comment.