Tycoon who paid for divorce with £2.5m fraud after wife dumped him for Cesc Fabregas faces fresh court fight to keep his cash

Daily Mail​

01-05-2025

A disgraced tycoon who paid for his divorce with a massive £2.5 million property fraud after his wife left him for Cesc Fabregas will face a fresh court fight to keep his cash this November.
Elie Taktouk, 50, married Lebanese model Daniella Semaan, 49, in 1998 before she left him for the current Spanish football manager - who was previously an Arsenal and Chelsea star.
Taktouk had lost his former family home in Belgravia to Ms Semaan and Fabregas after failing to block the £5.5 million sale of the flat to the footballer at the Court of Appeal.
The Grade-II listed property, just down the road from Buckingham Palace, had been put up for sale in 2013 so Taktouk could provide cash in the divorce settlement with his former wife.
The Taktouk family boasts a range of business interests in Nigeria and Lebanon in transport, flour mills, insurance, and property.
Taktouk was convicted of 11 charges of fraud by a jury and jailed for seven years in 2021, after funnelling cash given to him to renovate a multi-million pound property to fund his extravagant lifestyle.
Of an almost £2.5 million total investment, he spent £200,000 on divorce fees for proceedings concerning Ms Semaan, as well as tens of thousands on trips to Harrods, a £28,000 Porsche and renting a £21,000-per-month Kensington apartment.
Judge Alexander Milne KC made a confiscation ruling in the sum of £4.5m at Southwark Crown Court in November 2023.
He had ordered Taktouk should serve eight years in jail consecutive to the seven-year term for fraud if the money was not paid in default. But Taktouk successfully appealed against the order at the Court of Appeal in February.
Taktouk has since been released from prison and appeared at Southwark Crown Court via video-link today.
He will face a fresh hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act on November 5 but was told he must give 14 days notice if intends to travel abroad in the meantime.
Timothy Moloney, for Taktouk, said: 'Essentially 14 days notice of departure and return before travelling outside the jurisdiction.'
'He has made no attempt to leave the jurisdiction since the time he has been at liberty since his release.
'He has served his seven-year sentence of imprisonment. There is no incentive for him to abscond at this point.'
During the first confiscation hearing Taktouk accepted his father was a wealthy man, but said: 'Any detail I knew about his wealth was based on what I understood, what I saw, what I assumed.'
Youssef Taktouk was one of the richest men in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he lived for much of his life.
Semaan gives her husband Fabregas a kiss on the lips during a family holiday in Switzerland in December 2019
Elie and his brother Dr Wassim Taktouk were shareholders in his father's company Wasseli, the court heard.
He had told the hearing his father was worth £187m.
Elie, a director of JMT Property Ltd, was convicted by a jury of eleven charges of fraud after property developer Adrian Noël and his father Frank launched a private prosecution against him.
The charges related to the renovation of a £7m Grade-II listed apartment in Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge.
The Noëls made an initial investment which helped to buy the property - and then made ten additional investments at Elie's request for works to be done while he was project manager.
Instead of using their investments to help pay for a jacuzzi and other renovations Taktouk used the cash to fund his extravagant lifestyle.
He failed to keep up with payments due to the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and the Noëls lost just under £2.5m after their property was seized.
Taktouk also faked invoices for a building firm for work that was never done, and tried to shift the blame for the fake invoices onto company boss Joseph Farah.
Case papers revealed the Noëls lost the whole of their investment which totalled £2,490,546.69.
Court documents showed Elie used more than £200,000 of the funds to pay legal fees from his divorce from Ms Semaan.
He also spent more than £20,000 of expensive private school fees for his children; a £28,000 Porsche; a £21,000 a month property in Kensington; Georgio Armani clothes; shopping sprees in Harrods and splurging out on high-value furniture.
Lord Justice Edis, sitting with two other judges, had granted Taktouk's grounds for appealing the original confiscation order saying the court 'should receive fresh evidence from the appellant's brother, Dr Wassim Taktouk, who is the executor of the estate of their late father.'
Lord Justice Edis said: 'This is said to show that the judge's finding that the appellant had an interest in family-owned assets which he had not been truthful about was wrong.'
He said Judge Milne had 'conducted these proceedings with great skill and fairness and delivered, as we have said, an exemplary ruling.