Metro

Banker says ex’s sexy pics prove defamation suit is baseless

A banker is asking a Manhattan judge to toss his ex-girlfriend’s defamation lawsuit — claiming that social media photos of the model jetting to Nice and Monte Carlo prove she’s a liar.

Ukrainian stunner Christina Matthaus was arrested in 2014 after her then-boyfriend Michael Hadjedj told cops she went on a $5,000 shopping spree using his American Express card.

Hadjedi said in a recent deposition he thought he was doing Matthaus a favor by dropping the charges, but then she sued him for defamation, claiming the negative publicity surrounding her arrest caused her to lose gigs including a coveted Maxim magazine cover.

Matthaus’ 2014 defamation suit against Hadjedj says law enforcement officials took her passport during the criminal case, barring her from traveling abroad for lucrative photoshoots.

Meanwhile, Matthaus’ Tumblr account shows her poolside in Monte Carlo, at the airport in Nice and lunching in Saint Tropez, Hadjedj argues in a motion to dismiss the suit.

“Plaintiff’s passport was never confiscated and she spent the months following her arrest, traveling and frolicking throughout the Mediterranean on yachts and private planes and posting photographs on social media,” Hadjedj says in court papers.

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“Indeed, between the time of her arrest and the end of 2014, plaintiff traveled to: Munich; Cannes; Monte Carlo; Paris; Toronto; Turks and Caicos; Aspen; St. Lucia; Milan; Ibiza; Saint-Tropez; Jakarta; Bali; Mexico City; Strasbourg; Dusseldorf; Istanbul; and Miami,” Hadjedj says.

Matthaus’ attorney, David Jaroslawicz, told The Post he takes responsibility for the false claim. Jaroslawicz confused the circumstances surrounding Matthaus’ arrest with those of another client whose travel documents had been confiscated. He says he corrected the error as soon as he caught it.

But Hadjedj insists that the passport issue “was not the only allegation in the [suit] that was shown to be bogus.”

Matthaus also admitted in her deposition “that she was not in possession of defendant’s Amex card when she attempted to make these purchases,” he claims, of pricey items at Bergdorf Goodman, airlines tickets from Lufthansa and the online shopping website Net-a-Porter.

The British native co-founded the Manhattan-based finance firm United First Partners.

Matthaus counters that she had permission to use Hadjedj’s credit card and he reported her to police as payback following a “domestic dispute.”

His ex was once married to German soccer great Lothar Matthäus. She uses the professional name Liliana Nova. She’s appeared on the cover of Elle magazine and in the television show “Project Runway.”