Silvio Scaglia
Introduction
Silvio Scaglia is a Swiss-born Italian media and technology entrepreneur, the founder of Italian broadband giant Fastweb and the co-owner of Freedom Holding, the parent of the Elite World Group modeling agency. He is best known to a wider audience as the ex-husband of Julia Haart, star of Netflix’s “My Unorthodox Life,” and their four-year divorce battle became one of the messiest splits in recent fashion-industry memory. In September 2026, court papers reported by Page Six showed the divorce ending not with a truce but with an escalation: a New York judge found Scaglia in both civil and criminal contempt, issued a no-bail bench warrant for his arrest, and demanded he be immediately jailed for 14 days — while Haart walked away with full ownership of Elite World Group.
Background Information
Scaglia was born on October 14, 1958, in Lucerne, Switzerland, and graduated cum laude in electronic engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin in 1983. After early stints at Aeritalia Spazio, Andersen Consulting and McKinsey, he rose to prominence as CEO of mobile carrier Omnitel before launching e.Biscom, whose Fastweb unit became one of Italy’s largest broadband providers. He later built Freedom Holding, which controls Elite World Group, and in 2020 founded SHS Management, an AI-powered asset manager. He was ranked number 937 on the Forbes billionaires list in 2010; by 2024 he no longer qualified for the list.
Scaglia bought Elite in 2011 and appointed Haart — whom he had met while working together at the fashion brand La Perla — as CEO of the agency in March 2019; they married that June. Haart’s Netflix reality series “My Unorthodox Life” made the couple television personalities, documenting her reinvention from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish homemaker into a fashion mogul. The relationship soured in late 2021, and Haart filed for divorce on February 9, 2022, igniting a four-year legal war across New York and Delaware over control of Elite and its affiliates.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Allegations. The conduct claims in this section arise from findings and allegations in the Haart–Scaglia divorce litigation, as reported by Page Six and OK! Magazine from court papers. The contempt findings are matters of court record; no criminal case has been brought against Scaglia, he has not been arrested, and he has never submitted to US authorities on any of the claims. Scaglia’s attorneys have previously denied the allegations, and he did not respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
According to court papers obtained by Page Six and dated September 22, 2026, New York judge Jeffrey Pearlman found Scaglia in both civil and criminal contempt, saying he “knowingly and willfully” violated court orders, and issued a no-bail bench warrant demanding he be immediately jailed for 14 days. The papers claim Scaglia broke the law prohibiting spouses from moving shared assets once a divorce has begun by transferring Elite — the agency whose roster has included Kendall Jenner and Adriana Lima — without Haart’s permission.
The contempt ruling capped a series of damaging financial findings. Judge Pearlman previously found that Scaglia had “siphoned” the former couple’s assets, buying Bentleys, Porsches and Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry with company funds. An accountant testified that Scaglia also used firm money for a $342,000 heart-shaped engagement ring for his fiancée, socialite Michelle-Marie Heinemann, and court findings reported by OK! Magazine concluded that Scaglia funneled tens of millions of dollars out of Elite World Group to third parties — including to Heinemann — during the divorce, draining so much capital from parent company Freedom Holding that the siphoned value equaled and exceeded the worth of his own shares.
The 2026 warrant was not the first: in June 2024, a New York court issued an arrest warrant and sentenced Scaglia to 20 days in jail after finding him in contempt for ignoring a court order to pay Haart $300,000 in legal fees. He reportedly remained in Italy, where he appears to still be living, and did not serve that sentence.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The contempt findings came alongside a decisive financial defeat. The court awarded Haart 100% ownership of Elite World Group and the couple’s $57 million Tribeca apartment, after finding that Scaglia had already transferred the value of his share of the company “and then some” to himself in cash, sports cars and other assets. Per OK! Magazine’s account of the ruling, Haart also received half of the more than $25 million Scaglia withdrew, $7.4 million in unpaid management fees, and half the proceeds of a $2.97 million Kees Van Dongen painting he sold. The ownership award ended a four-year corporate power struggle that had begun when Scaglia dismissed Haart as Elite’s CEO days after her divorce filing, and when the Delaware Chancery Court ruled in August 2022 that she owned 49.99% of the company, leaving him the controlling shareholder.
Haart, who had filed a fraud lawsuit against Scaglia in 2023 that New York’s Appellate Division allowed to proceed in October 2024, said she was relieved to finally see “the truth come out” after years of lawsuits, countersuits and what she described as false accusations of theft leveled against her by Scaglia. Scaglia, for his part, had previously accused Haart of mismanaging the company and illegally draining corporate funds. Scaglia and his representatives did not respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Current Status
As of late September 2026, Scaglia appears to be living in his native Italy and has yet to submit to US authorities for any of the alleged crimes; the September 22 no-bail bench warrant — with its accompanying 14-day jail demand — remains outstanding. The contempt findings and the award of 100% of Elite World Group to Haart stand as court decisions, while the underlying conduct claims were aired in civil litigation rather than a criminal prosecution. Scaglia remains engaged to Heinemann, who legally took the Scaglia surname in 2023.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The divorce has stripped Scaglia of the business empire that defined his second act. Once #937 on the Forbes billionaires list, he fell off it entirely by 2024, was reduced to requesting a court-appointed attorney that September while Haart’s team pointed to press reports of summers on yachts and private jets, and now exits the litigation with no stake in Elite World Group or Freedom Holding — the company the court found he drained to his own detriment. The double contempt finding and outstanding no-bail warrant turn a bitter civil divorce into a personal legal peril: crossing into US jurisdiction would mean immediate custody. His reputation as one of Italy’s most successful telecom entrepreneurs — the builder of Fastweb — is now permanently entangled with judicial findings that he “knowingly and willfully” defied court orders in the case that consumed his fortune.
Sources
- New York Post / Page Six, “Julia Haart’s ex husband facing criminal charges, jail over alleged actions during brutal divorce,” September 25, 2026 — source
- New York Post (@nypost), X post sharing the Page Six story, September 25, 2026 — source
- OK! Magazine, “Court Says Silvio Scaglia Funneled Millions to Third Parties During $90 Million Divorce With Julia Haart,” September 16, 2026 — source
- Wikipedia, “Silvio Scaglia,” accessed September 26, 2026 — source