Tom PowellA BRITISH millionaire claims he has been extorted in an elaborate sex assault ruse to rob €10 million of jewellery, gold and carpets from him.
Marbella-based businessman Shoja ‘Sacha’ Shojai, insists claims he kept a ‘harem’ of women captive in his €7,000-a-month rented mansion were ‘completely crazy’.
In an exclusive interview with the Olive Press, he revealed: “This was a very clever plan to steal millions of euros of jewels, cash and paintings from me.”
Speaking on bail from his sumptuous home in Sierra Blanca, the long-time Costa del Sol tycoon denied reports in the national Spanish and British press that he was some sort of ‘sex monster’ who had slept with nine women who lived with him.
He is alleged to have conned the attractive young women into living with him in Marbella after promising them he could make them models.
But the professional relationships soon became sexual, with Shojai turning his 10-bedroom mansion into an ‘Arabian harem’ and allegedly forcing them to stay under his roof.
The women have now filed a joint complaint with Spanish police, claiming he psychologically abused, threatened and controlled them.
They say he took turns to sleep with each of them and that seven children, now aged between nine months and seven years old, were born as a result.
He allegedly threatened to harm the women’s children and families if they disobeyed him.
Marbella’s Court Number Two is now investigating the case, with claims that detectives found the date rape drug Rohypnol in his house, which might explain why the women complained of suffering headaches.
The women, aged between 20 and 30 and mostly eastern European or Asian, all lived in an extravagant Arabic-style villa inside Shojai’s plot, which is surrounded by palm trees, and has an indoor pool, a huge ballroom and once had a mini zoo and a tennis court.
Shoja, who lived in an adjoining palace called Casa Nabil, was known as ‘Sasha’ to the women.
However, the businessman, who has lived on the Costa del Sol for years, insisted he had been ‘set up’.
The former Moosh Moosh beach club owner, in Puerto Banus – who has links to the oil business in Iran – claimed he had been helping the women set up a fashion business, as well as a local language academy.
He had also been looking to set up a university in Marbella last year, over which he had consulted the Olive Press for a potential advertising campaign (Read all about Olive Press editor Jon Clarke’s evening at Sacha’s palatial home here).
He didn’t deny that he had slept with three of the women, two who were ex-girlfriends and one who was his ex-wife, a 33-year-old Dane, with who he has two children, a seven-year-old and a baby.
But he claimed: “I have been completely framed. It was all arranged by one of the girls.
“She knew that all they had to do was say I had beaten and raped them and I would be locked up in Spain.
“Hence one day I was suddenly arrested and accused of family violence and beating people up.
“It meant being dragged straight to the police station where I was held for 48 hours.
“During that time my house was completely cleared out. The girls robbed everything, all my jewellery, lots of clothes and cash, as well as paintings and 75 Iranian carpets, worth € 5 million alone.
“They piled it into two huge 45-foot lorries from a well known removal firm and were set to drive my stuff to a business in Berlin, but luckily I found out before the lorries left the coast.
“Now I have filed my information with the court and I am expecting to clear my name.”
However a lawyer representing the women, Sonsoles Rosales, insisted the women were telling the truth.
“They remained in this situation out of fear,” she said. “They were free to come and go, but needed his prior authorisation, and he decided when they had to be back home, whether they could travel or not, and if so when they had to return.”
They also claim that one of his drivers would accompany them at all times if they left.
A local computer business who worked with the tycoon however, doubted this. He told the Olive Press: “Well quite a lot of the women came in to see me on their own with issues with phones, etc, and they did not seem to be getting held against their will.”
Meanwhile a neighbour revealed that there had been some big parties at the compound that was only part rented by Shoja. “Weddings, events, that sort of thing,” he said.
The local estate agent said he had frequently seen cars from Russia, Lithuania and the UK outside but none had been there recently.
“But you often saw the women outside, smartly dressed and polite and with their children playing around, they didn’t look abused,” he said.
He claimed the house was owned by a Basque developer, who planned to knock down the buildings and build 20 town houses.
He believed it was bought for around €12 million five years ago from a German, who owns a string of Burger King franchises in Germany.
…rented mansion..?????? humm