Victory for tycoon who funded divorce with a massive property fraud

A disgraced property tycoon who paid for his divorce with a massive property fraud after his wife left him for footballer Cesc Fabregas has saved £3.2 million following a successful appeal against a confiscation order.

Elie Taktouk, 50, who married Lebanese model Daniella Semaan in 1998, was left heartbroken when she began a relationship with former Arsenal and Chelsea star Fabregas.

The businessman, a director of JMT Property Ltd, was later convicted of 11 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 £7 million Grade-II listed apartment in Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge. 

Instead of using investments made by the Noëls to help pay for a jacuzzi and other lavish renovations, Taktouk funnelled the cash into funding his extravagant lifestyle.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison in his absence in 2021 after attempting to take his own life in a hotel on the eve of sentencing.

In November 2023, Judge Alexander Milne KC imposed a £4.5 million confiscation order at Southwark Crown Court, warning that Taktouk would face a further eight years behind bars if the money was not repaid.

But after appealing the order at the Court of Appeal in February, Taktouk succeeded in slashing the amount to £1.3 million – a reduction of £3.2 million. 

However, he failed in a separate bid to block the £5.5 million sale of his former family home to Ms Semaan, now 49, and her husband Fabregas.

Having now served his prison term, Taktouk appeared at Southwark Crown Court today for a new confiscation hearing, where prosecutors confirmed a revised deal had been struck.

Kennedy Talbot KC, prosecuting, told Judge Milne: ‘You made the confiscation order on 3 November 2023 finding the benefit to be just over £4.5 million.

‘Following that Mr Taktouk appealed to the Court of Appeal. He relied on evidence which he did not call in front of your honour – principally a witness statement of his brother Dr Taktouk, who practises as a doctor in London.

‘He persuaded the Court of Appeal to allow his appeal against the confiscation order on the basis that this material wasn’t available to your honour.’

Mr Talbot continued: ‘I am very pleased to say we have reached an agreement which I should tell your honour about.

‘This agreement that we have reached is that the court should consider making a confiscation order in the sum of £1.3m.

‘This figure is between what it is that Mr Taktouk says is available to him and what it is that he would have to prove that he does not have – that is £4.5m.’

The prosecutor explained that Dr Wassim Taktouk, acting as executor of his father’s will, had ‘agreed to charge his property for the payment of £1.3m.’

He said the new figure would ensure ‘certain’ payment of the order.

Judge Milne described the case as ‘exceptionally complex’ and praised the revised £1.3 million figure as a ‘sensible and pragmatic’ solution.

‘Most importantly it is likely to result in real action, as opposed to simply being a nominal order that is never met,’ he added.

A short hearing has been scheduled for Friday for the order to be formally made once paperwork is completed.