Elie Taktouk, the tycoon jailed for fraud after his wife left him for former Arsenal player Cesc Fabregas, spent £78,000 at Harrods, a court has heard. The 49-year-old is now facing the loss of millions of pounds in a confiscation hearing following his conviction.
Taktouk was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2021 for a multi-million-pound property fraud. The case was brought after his former wife, Lebanese model Daniella Semaan, left him for Fabregas in 2011. Taktouk later lost a legal battle to block the £5.5million sale of the family home in Belgravia to the footballer.
At the confiscation hearing, prosecutor Kennedy Talbot KC said Taktouk had received about £1.2million from £10million transferred to a bank account linked to his late father, Youssef Taktouk, a Nigerian-based businessman reportedly worth £187million. Talbot argued that even if Taktouk was not receiving money from the family company Wasseli, he must have benefited from other family assets.
The court was told Taktouk drove a Porsche, rented a £21,000-a-month property in Kensington, and bought £78,000 worth of luxury items from Harrods between September 2014 and August 2021. Talbot noted that Taktouk's brother and mother had not given evidence, suggesting an adverse inference could be drawn from their absence.
Defending, Timothy Maloney insisted Taktouk had been disinherited from his father's estate. He said his mother was 'very old and ill' and that his brother chose not to attend court. Taktouk's conviction related to renovations of a £7million Grade-II listed apartment in Knightsbridge, where he used investors' money to fund his lifestyle rather than the planned works, including a jacuzzi.
