Update, July 11, 10:40 p.m. ET: Silvio Scaglia’s lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, sent PopCulture.com the following statement on the lawsuit. “Ms. Haart has touted in her book her mantra, ‘Fake it till you make it.’ By her latest filing, she seems to suggest that she believes this works in a court of law. It does not,” Davis said. “The new case she filed has similar claims to those she made in a Delaware court. After a full trial, the court ruled against her on all counts – she does not own 50% of the parent company or any of the companies that are owned and controlled by Mr. Scaglia. Maybe it’s time for Ms. Haart to stop lying about Mr. Scaglia and his companies and start accepting the facts and truth.”
Original Story: My Unorthodox Life’s Julia Haart has filed a lawsuit against her estranged husband and co-star for multimillion dollars in fraud. The Netflix star is seeking more than $257 million in damages to be determined at trial, Deadline reported.
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According to the lawsuit filed July 8 in New York State court, Haart’s lawyers called Silvio Scaglia “a liar and a fraud.” Haart alleges Scaglia scammed her out of stock and substantial funds from Freedom Holding, Inc. (FHI), their parent company.
“Haart’s indentured servitude must be remedied,”the complaint states, including financiers Paolo Barbieri, Jeffrey Feinman, and Scaglia among the defendants. “It cannot be that a man can convince his wife to give up millions in dollars in salary and benefits, plus an employment contract at the peak of her career (along with the security and independence that come with those things) and then leave her with nothing when his bait-and-switch is revealed.”
The litigation by Haart and her Morrison Cohen LLP attorneys follows the “smear campaign” the executive claims she’s fighting over a lawsuit filed last month by Scaglia alleging she used FHI as her personal account. “While he holds himself out to the media and others as a billionaire, in truth, Scaglia’s so-called wealth is nothing more than smoke and mirrors,” reads Haart’s 45-page filing.
In My Unorthodox Life, Haart shows her evolution into a modern woman in Manhattan’s fashion and creative industries after leaving her ultra-orthodox Jewish faith and community in September last year. In the unscripted series, she runs the Elite World Group (EWG), with her second husband Scaglia playing an essential role on and off-camera.
The lawsuit states that My Unorthodox Life “was an immediate success and thrust EWG into the mainstream media far beyond its original industry insider status.” Despite discussing taking their company public, Scaglia and Haart separated in early 2021.
The divorce case was relatively amicable, and the case was moving through the court system. A press release was even planned for Valentine’s Day this year, announcing they “were divorcing for personal reasons but would remain as business partners in FHI/EWG because that venture was strong.”
The lawsuit claims that Scaglia amended FHI’s Articles of Incorporation just days before the press release was scheduled to run. As a result of his maneuver, he remains the majority owner despite having promised to give Haart a 50% stake in the company. Moreover, he illicitly emptied $1.5 million from an FHI bank account and disrupted its ownership structure.
According to the filing, when Scaglia transferred 50% of FHI shares to Haart, her control and ownership of FHI were illegitimate, leaving her unable to prevent Scaglia from taking all of Haart’s valuable earnings for himself. As CEO of EWG, Haart did not know of Scaglia’s fraud and took on the role without a salary or employment contract.
As part of Haart’s claim, Scaglia intentionally misled his then-fiancée as to what the FHI shares represented by withholding from her the existence of his preferred shares in the business and not providing her the entire 50% of those preferred shares.
In the five-claim complaint, Haart alleges she is entitled to recover:millions of dollars in management fees paid by EWG to FHI for Haart’s services as EWG’s CEO; the scores of millions of dollars of net value, or the hundreds of millions of dollars of value, attributed to EWG’s potential sale price due to Haart’s efforts. These damages must be established at trial. My Unorthodox Life’s upcoming second season is not expected to be delayed by ongoing divorce proceedings or a lawsuit and is set to premiere later in the year.
