May 16-2014
An Iranian expatriate living in Spain stands accused of conning nine women into being his sex slaves.
But he responds that he is no con man, but rather the victim of con women, who wanted to steal his property.
The accused Casanova first captured the young women’s attention by pretending to be the CEO of an oil company with an impressive list of contacts in the fashion industry, news reports last week alleged.
With the promise of making them all top models, he moved them into his luxurious, 10-bedroom villa in the southern Spanish city of Marbella.
It was there, the reports said, that the young girls’ professional and romantic relationship with the fake businessman turned into a nightmare.
“He enjoyed their company whenever he wanted,” sources close to the investigation were quoted as saying by The Local, an English language publication in Spain.
The man with the private harem was identified by the Daily Telegraph of London as Shoja Shojai, 56. The newspaper said he carries a British passport and met the women while they were studying fashion in London.
Although the women soon became aware that their lover was no more than a conman, he kept them under his thumb with physical and psychological abuse, the Spanish newspaper ABC reported.
“They were always controlled and supervised by him. He threatened to harm them if they didn’t tell him everything they were doing.”
During three years living under the same roof, the news reports said, Shojai fathered seven children with his nine concubines, all of whom (except for his real wife, a 33-year-old Dane) were between 19 and 27.
While posing as a wealthy businessman, in reality, “It was the girls who paid for everything after asking their loved ones for money,” sources close to the investigation were quoted as saying.
One of them has filed a lawsuit against Shojai for allegedly forcing her family to pay the monthly $9,000 rent for the Marbella mansion.
Eight others have since pressed charges against him for physical and psychological abuse.
His harem fell apart when one of the women went to police. He was arrested March 27, but soon released and is now back in his mansion.
Shojai’s harem mates are originally from Germany, Lith-uania, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Turkmenistan.
They have all left the house where they lived with the Iranian, with some living in shelters and one having left the country, ABC of Madrid reported.
The Telegraph said it interviewed a workman at the property who said he did not believe the women were being held against their will. He said: “They left in the mornings in their cars without any problems to take their children to school. I can only say what I saw during the day though. I have no idea what happened at night.”
After Shojai was freed from jail, he gave an interview to a British reporter and told a completely different story.
Shojai dismissed claims he had slept with all the young females or that he was father to their seven children. He said he slept with three of them, including his wife, and fathered four children, two with his wife.
He said one of his ex-lovers lied about him assaulting her and charged that his luxury mansion was emptied of millions of pounds worth of clothes, Persian rugs and jewelry while he was in police custody.
Shojai was born in Iran, but spent most of his adult life in the UK before moving to Spain.
He said, “The idea I had a harem is madness. I have slept with three of my female accusers, including my wife, but I’ve been seeking a divorce from her for many years and my sexual relationship with the other two women was over long before my arrest.
“The other women were simply friends of theirs who worked with them in the fashion business and had their own homes and came and went from my house when they wanted.
“The claim I was holding them here against their will is ludicrous.”
He then laid out what he saw as a plot against him. “Two 45-foot removal trucks were booked two weeks before the women reported me to police and a warehouse in Germany to receive my stuff was booked one month before.
“My house was robbed while I was in the police station answering the domestic violence allegations made against me.
“More than 25,000 personal items including all my personal papers, clothes, more than 2 million pounds [$3.2 million] worth of jewelry, 75 Persian rugs and 20 tapestries were taken.
“The others were told I had been arrested by the FBI and taken to Guantanamo Bay and they needed to pack up and leave before the police arrived—and they fell for it.
“I completely and absolutely deny all the allegations made against me. This was a coverup to rob me.
“Thankfully I was released from custody in time and we managed to stop the lorries before they left Spain. Eight boxes of my stuff are now in a storage warehouse in nearby Estepona with a police seal round them.”
Shojai says he started a Swiss-based oil brokerage firm called Universal Resources Industries after a private school education in England.
Two courts are conducting investigations and no one has yet been charged.
The women have declined to speak publicly but have insisted through their lawyers they stand by their stories and have nothing to do with the alleged theft.
Shojai said the mastermind of the scheme against him was the first woman to go to the Spanish police. He said she is the 27-year-old daughter of a cabinet minister in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan. Shojai said the scheme was designed to solve “major financial problems” she and her family faced.
