Alexander “Nico” Fanjul, the son of sugar baron Alexander Fanjul, was arrested for domestic violence, including allegations of strangulation and robbery, on Monday night in Palm Beach, Fla.
Fanjul’s family owns Florida Crystals and Fanjul Corp, the sugar and real estate conglomerate in the US and the Dominican Republic.
According to the police report obtained by Page Six, Palm Beach cops arrived at his home at 11p.m. when a neighbor called 911 after hearing a woman screaming.
When an officer arrived, they heard a woman screaming “Get off me,” reads the report, adding Fanjul was standing over the woman who was “in a defensive ‘fetal’ position.”
The officer saw her face bleeding, the report said. The unidentified woman told police she had been physically assaulted by Fanjul and “thought she was going to die.”
The woman told the police that they had dined earlier at the swank Flagler Steakhouse at the ritzy Breakers Hotel when wealthy Fanjul, “became irate because the two were sat by a homosexual couple at the restaurant.”
The report continues that after dinner, “Fanjul became increasingly irate and continued to speak about his frustration with the restaurant.”
The Flagler restaurant tells Page Six when reached for comment: “We have no record of an incident as you describe, and have no further information to share.”
While outside the home, the woman allegedly “told Fanjul to drop the subject and that is when he began to punch [her] in the face with a closed fist causing bruising, bleeding and swelling of the facial area.”
The woman told police that he then, “continually kneed her in the face.”
Fanjul, whose family empire is reportedly worth billions, is also accused of ripping her purse from her shoulder after she threatened to call for help and then smashing her hand and phone.
“Fanjul grabbed her hand that held her cell phone and began to smash her hand and her phone into the ground causing it to shatter and break,” reads the report.
After she began screaming, he “forcibly dragged her inside the residence to prevent her from receiving aid or escaping.”
Once inside, she claims he strangled her. The officer noted redness and bruising on the woman’s neck as well as “trails of blood,” where he allegedly dragged her.
Fanjul was determined to be the primary aggressor, and put under arrest for Felony Domestic Battery for Strangulation, False Imprisonment, Robbery, Tampering with or Harassing Victim, Criminal Mischief, and possession of cocaine.
According to the Palm Beach Post, which was first to report the arrest, the sugar heir was released on $180,000 bail.
The outlet reported that an attorney who represented Fanjul during a hearing Tuesday at the Palm Beach County Jail said that Fanjul denies the allegations.
Page Six reached out to Fanjul and Florida Crystals, but did not hear back.
Fanjul previously had several brushes with the cops when he dated socialite Tinsley Mortimer — who later joined “The Real Housewives of New York City” — and previously faced domestic violence accusations from her, which his family denied to Page Six at the time.
According to People, “In 2013, Mortimer was hospitalized for a head injury and two police reports from June 2014 revealed further altercations between the couple in which Fanjul allegedly smothered Mortimer with a pillow and pushed her head to the pavement, according to the police report.”
Police were also called for domestic violence to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Mortimer’s birthday in 2014. She did not press charges.
In 2016, she was arrested for trespassing on his property.
“I think that what I’ve learned is that it is unfortunately easier to fall into a situation like that [domestic abuse], than you think,” Tinsley told Daily Mail in 2017. “Once you’re caught up in that sort of cycle, it’s really hard to break out of it. I definitely was not myself during that time and it wasn’t until the arrest that 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.
