The divorce fight between Silvio Scaglia and Julia Haart may be over on paper, but the legal consequences are still mounting for the Italian businessman.
A New York judge has issued a no-bail bench warrant for Scaglia’s arrest and ordered him jailed for 14 days, according to court documents obtained by Page Six. Judge Jeffrey Pearlman found Scaglia in both civil and criminal contempt, saying he knowingly and willfully violated court orders tied to the couple’s divorce proceedings.
At the center of the dispute are allegations that Scaglia moved shared assets after the divorce began. Court papers claim he transferred Elite—the prominent modeling agency whose clients have included Kendall Jenner and Adriana Lima—without Haart’s permission. The judge also said Scaglia “siphoned” the former couple’s assets, pointing to earlier findings that he used company funds to buy Bentleys, Porsches and Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry.
Pearlman has also sought to hold Scaglia accountable for ignoring multiple court directives during hearings. Page Six reported in 2024 that the court ordered him jailed for disregarding an instruction to pay Haart $300,000.
The Sept. 22 court papers indicate Scaglia has not submitted to U.S. authorities. He appears to be living in his native Italy.
The case stems from a bitter split that began in 2022 and led to a series of lawsuits and countersuits over control of Elite and its affiliated companies. Scaglia bought Elite in 2011. In March 2019, he appointed Haart—a fashion designer and star of Netflix’s “My Unorthodox Life”—as CEO of the agency. They married later that year.
Their four-year legal battle over a $90 million estate ended with Haart walking away with Elite. She has now been awarded 100% of Elite World Group and the couple’s $57 million Tribeca apartment after the court found that Scaglia had already transferred the value of his share of the company to himself—and then some—through cash, sports cars and other assets. Scaglia’s attorneys have previously denied the allegations.