In a court transcript, the author admits there were 37 luxury items, including an $11,000 black leather Valentino cape and a $21,000 white leather Louis Vuitton handbag among others, that were seized.
- April 27, 2022
AceShowbiz - Julia Haart's love for fashion once got her in trouble with law. The "Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie" author revealed that she was detained at JFK Airport back in 2020 after bringing in $153,000 worth of designer clothing.
Julia shared that she was held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in October 2020 when she returned from a French shopping spree. In a court transcript seen by Page Six, she admitted there were 37 luxury items, including an $11,000 black leather Valentino cape, a $21,000 white leather Louis Vuitton handbag and another Louis Vuitton bag worth $26,000, that were seized after she returned from attending Paris Fashion Week. She shared that as none of the items had tags on them, they were seized by customs as soon as she landed.
The Elite World Group CEO shared the stories when she was being cross-examined by her estranged husband Silvio Scaglia's attorney Lisa Simpson in a Delaware court last week. Simpson asked her, "You even tried to deceive the US government, correct?" to which Haart replied, "Excuse me?" The attorney continued, "You were detained at JFK Airport in New York in October of 2020, right?" Julia then responded, "I think so, yes."
The lawyer also asked if she "had several hundred thousand dollars of merchandise in [her] bags" at the time, to which Julia denied. "I did not. … I think the amount was 150, not several hundred thousands," she doubled down.
"I declared some merchandise; but at that point, I had been sending a lot of stuff over as opposed to bringing it with me," she explained. "So I had forgotten that two of the orders were with me instead of had been sent. And a lot of things did end up being sent."
She admitted that there were a total of 37 items that she failed to disclose to customs. "And that included an $11,000 black leather Valentino cape and a $21,000 Louis Vuitton white handbag and a $26,000 Louis Vuitton leather bag, right?" asked the attorney, to which Haart answered, "Sounds right."
The documents revealed that the haul also included a $2,000 Valentino dress, a $1,900 Valeni think tino pullover, a $5,851 Valentino coat, a $3,723 Valentino black leather jacket, a $6,915 Valentino blazer, a $3,427 Louis Vuitton silver leather skirt and a $4,727 Louis Vuitton biker leather dress. The total value of all of the seized luxury goods was $153,532.00 and Julia paid the entire value of the goods to get them back in her possession.
"Silvio approved all of the clothing purchases as a business expense," a source told the news outlet on Tuesday, April 26. "He also directed EWG's CFO to pay for the lawyers and the fines which he also considered business expenses. Julia may have been alone at the airport but Silvio was directly involved before, during and after."
The former couple has been in legal battle as she claims that she owns half of his company, Elite World Group, and his $65 million Tribeca apartment. Silvio, meanwhile, denies her claims. Julia additionally was accused taking $850,000 out of company funds hours after being fired in February.
