Glamorous assistant to Nicky Hilton's ex says she didn't steal from Todd Meister she was his lover

Renata Shamrakova, who is accused of using her boss Todd Meister’s credit cards and then raiding his bank accounts to pay off the charges, is arraigned in in Manhattan Supreme Court Thursday

Diamonds - and the rich guy's credit card that paid for them - are this girl's best friend.

Prosecutors say that when glamorous young Renata Shamrakova spent nearly a million bucks last year jet-setting around the world and buying armloads of jewelry, the funds were stolen from her high-society boss, Todd Meister.

Wrong, she says. He was my lover.

The 26-year-old aspiring actress pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Superior Court Thursday to charges of grand larceny, identity theft and tampering with evidence.

It's not as clean and neat as the DA is saying," said Mark Agnifilo, the sultry Shamrakova's lawyer.

It's a he said-she said. He said this is a theft. She said it is not, because there was a relationship."

Meister, 41, a Harvard Business School grad who founded the multibillion-dollar Priderock hedge fund, was not in court to hear the claim that his personal assistant maxed out his credit cards "with his consent."

But afterwards, Meister - who has dated some of the richest women in society and was once briefly married to his childhood pal Nicky Hilton - called it a bunch of nonsense.

She didn't work out of my house, she worked out of my office. I've never even had a meal with her - not even a cup of coffee," Meister told the Daily News.

When she found out she was about to get caught, she fabricated a relationship with me," he said.

Wearing dark pants, high-heeled boots and a white T-shirt, Shamrakova showed no reaction in court when Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Cory Jacobs said the prosecution would insist that she spend at least a year in jail.

Shamrakova, who touts herself as an actress and did one low-budget indie flick in 2009, "Fighting Nirvana," preened for the judge and cameras but kept silent.

She was freed on a $450,000 bond.

A naturalized citizen, Shamrakova could be deported to her native Ukraine if convicted.

Meister said that after she stole his identity, ripped him off and made up the affair, the worst part was her lack of conscience. "She has zero remorse," Meister said.

Prosecutors said Shamrakova started stealing from Meister as soon as she went to work for him in March 2011.

In the next ten months, she managed to put a whopping $900,000 in bogus charges on Meister's American Express platinum and gold cards, prosecutors say.

At one point, she even obtained a card in her own name linked to his platinum account so she could charge with impunity.

Jacobs said she also used Meister's checking account "as a personal piggy bank," siphoning about $500,000 from it to pay some of the credit card bills.

She flitted from Aruba to Italy to India, buying thousands of necklaces, rings and bracelets for Karat & Ice, an online jewelry business she recently founded with her boyfriend and co-defendant, Michael Smaye.

A Facebook page they started for the firm in December features photos of the couple posing together,as well as snaps of the oversized baubles they are selling.

The company motto: More IS More.

In November, Shamrakova was tweeting from Florence, where she said she was buying one-of-a-kind pieces from Italian artisans.

All the glittery goods were seized: cops executed search warrants on two adjacent apartments at 321 W. 21st St. and a Manhattan Mini Storage on W. 23rd St. and seized 1,164 necklaces, 658 bracelets, 359 rings, 2,393 pairs of earrings and assorted watches and pendants.

Her lawyer said he wanted access to the computer and cellphone records seized by the police to show evidence of a romantic arrangement between Meister and his assistant.

As investigators were closing in on her, Shamrakova told Smaye to remove computers, cell phones and financial documents from the apartment that they shared, Jacobs said.

Smaye, who has not yet been arrested, will appear in court Tuesday on obstruction of justice charges.

Meister, an heir to the Aon insurance fortune, now runs the Meister Co., which has interests in energy companies.

He was famously married to Paris Hilton's 20-year-old heiress sister in a quickie 2004 Vegas wedding. The union lasted less than three months in 2004.

He is single but has been linked to a string of socialites, including Jamie Tisch.