Silvio Scaglia seems to be a slow learner.
The billionaire fashion exec has given his new fiancée a top role in his company — even though his marriage to his last lover-turned-business-partner, Julia Haart, ended in a mud-slinging battle over the business.
Scaglia, 64, has made Michelle-Marie Heinemann Scaglia a director at Elite World Group just six months after the couple announced their engagement.
Hart, 52, sued Scaglia last year in a bid to claim that she owned 50 percent of EWG’s holding company after being sacked as CEO on the same day she filed for divorce.
She lost her fight in a Delaware Supreme Court and also lost an appeal earlier this month.
Heinemann Scaglia will join Scaglia and his CEO Paolo Barbieri on the board of directors.
Some EWG staffers are fearful that there could be a repeat of the Haart situation.
“It’s crazy,” one source told Pvnew. “Everyone is like, ‘Really dude, again? What the f–k.'”
Scaglia was quick to deny that the situation with his new love is anything like the one with Haart, telling Pvnew: “In the last 12 years I have provided the leadership and the resources that made EWG the global leader of its industry. I am the proud owner of the company, notwithstanding the damage that Julia Haart made during her two years tenure as a CEO.
“For what matters to EWG, Julia Haart is past news and I reaffirm my personal commitment to the company and my leadership by adding to the Board the person I respect and trust the most: Michelle-Marie Heinemann Scaglia.”
Scaglia made it clear, however, that his fight against his ex is not over.
“She was a con artist who disguised herself as a successful fashion designer to convince me to marry her and give her a role in my companies,” he said. “I have filed a lawsuit to prove this and hold her accountable.”
Last year, Heinemann Scaglia, who runs the lifestyle website OldFashionedMom.org, told Pvnew that she and Scaglia were planning to work together.
“We are discussing creating a think tank” to focus on climate change, she said. “We are working on a lot of projects that are important and simpatico. It is all related to giving back. Children are important to me. I really would like to spend the rest of my life helping people.”
Even though the pair are not yet wed, as Scaglia is still mid-divorce from Haart, Michelle-Marie has already changed her name by deed poll to Scaglia. She has two children, Hudson and Hyacinth, from her marriage to hedge funder Jon Heinemann.
Another source told us: “There’s an element of PTSD from what happened with Julia. Look at the fallout of that.”
A current employee speculated that the company needed to complete its board, saying: “A board of two people doesn’t really make sense. Obviously, Scaglia chose the person he trusts the most.”
