Sugar heir Alexander “Nico” Fanjul — who was arrested last week for allegedly strangling a woman — was also arrested in April of last year for another domestic violence incident, according to Palm Beach Police.
Fanjul’s billionaire family owns Florida Crystals and Fanjul Corp, the sugar and real estate conglomerates in the US and the Dominican Republic.
On April 22, he was arrested at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., according to a report, after his girlfriend called authorities claiming the sugar heir “tackled her to the ground.”
The couple had been drinking earlier at swank sushi spot Echo when Fanjul allegedly made “vulgar statements about prior incidents between them,” according to a copy of the Palm Beach County Domestic Violence Probable Cause Affidavit obtained by Page Six.
The unidentified woman stated in the affidavit that things escalated, and she went inside his home to retrieve her Louis Vuitton handbag before calling an Uber — when Fanjul allegedly “charged at her and tackled her to the ground, causing her to land on her back and told her, ‘You’re not f–king going anywhere.’”
The woman says she fought back, elbowing and kneeing the wealthy scion. She alleges she exclaimed she was going to call the police, and that he slammed her phone to the ground.
She was then able to retrieve it and make the call, as she “ran outside screaming.”
Cops reported that the woman had an injured nail and an abrasion on her left arm, and that she told police that Fanjul had “a history of unreported physical violence against her, often times physically restraining her.”
Fanjul, the son of sugar baron Alexander Fanjul, told the officer that he was upset because the woman called their relationship “boring,” and that he grabbed her handbag, which was on her shoulder, when she said she was leaving.
Fanjul also said he grabbed her phone from her, claiming it was because, “she had recorded ‘incriminating’ videos of him.”
According to the Palm Beach Police Incident report obtained by Page Six, Fanjul began having “difficulty breathing and requested medical attention,” after being handcuffed and placed in a patrol car.
He was taken to the hospital before being taken to the County Jail.
The woman refused medical attention, and was given a Victims Rights Packet, according to the Incident Report.
Last week, Fanjul was arrested for felony Domestic Battery for Strangulation, False Imprisonment, Robbery, Tampering with or Harassing Victim, Criminal Mischief, and possession of cocaine.
His neighbor had called police after hearing a woman screaming, according to a Domestic Violence Probable Cause Affidavit seen by Page Six.
The unidentified woman told officers that he flew into an anti-LGBTQ rage after they were seated by a gay couple earlier at the Flagler Steakhouse at the Breakers, according to the report. (The restaurant told Page Six it had “no record of an incident as you describe” when we’d reached out for comment.)
The woman alleged that he strangled her, kneed her in the face, slammed her phone and hand against the ground and dragged her inside, with cops noting there were “trails of blood.”
She told officers she “thought she was going to die,” according to the affidavit.
According to the Palm Beach Post, which was first to report the arrest, the sugar heir was released on $180,000 bail. His attorney told the publication that his client denies the allegations.
Fanjul and his family’s Florida Crystals company did not return calls for comment.
Fanjul is a regular on the Palm Beach social circuit, and previously had several brushes with the cops when he dated socialite Tinsley Mortimer, who later joined “The Real Housewives of New York City.”
He’d previously faced domestic violence accusations from her, which his family denied to Page Six at the time, and she did not press charges.
Mortimer was hospitalized in 2013 for a head injury, and there were two police reports from June 2014 about incidents involving the duo, including an allegation that he smothered Mortimer with a pillow and pushed her head to the pavement, reported People magazine at the time.
Police were also called for domestic violence to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., in 2014.
In 2016, Page Six reported that Mortimer was arrested for trespassing on his property. She claimed at the time that she only wanted to retrieve her purse from inside, but Fanjul said he did not have it.
Mortimer told the Daily Mail in 2017 that the arrest helped her end the relationship. “I was able to break free from it – the cycle was broken, thank God.”
She also told People of their two-year relationship, “I had moments of feeling like I wasn’t going to make it. I was going to be one of those tragic stories you see on TV.”
Fanjul did not comment to People at the time.
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