Call it The Case of the Fake Fanjul.
Private detective Bo Dietl, a friend of sugar baron Pepe Fanjul for 25 years, is trying to convince a purported Miami scam artist to stop using the distinguished Cuban name Fanjul.
“I told him, ‘You lying little scumbag. You keep using ‘Fanjul’ and I’ll get on a plane and fly down there and punch your lights out,” Dietl told me. “He’s a total, total fraud.”
Luis Garcia only started calling himself Luis Garcia Fanjul after he was busted for credit card fraud in 2006, getting off with three years of probation and a $100 fine, according to Dietl. Garcia has previous arrests for forgery, petty theft and aggravated assault.
The name certainly suggests privilege and good breeding. Pepe (real name José) and his brother Alfy (Alfonso) lost a fortune when they were forced out of Cuba by Fidel Castro, but they made another fortune in the US. Their private Fanjul Corp. is the largest sugar refining company in the world, with vast real estate holdings in Florida and Dominican Republic.
The Fanjuls, who donate generously to both Democrats and Republicans, are prominent in Palm Beach and New York society. Pepe’s daughter Emilia Fanjul Pfeifler owns a high-end public relations company.
“Yes, I use the name Fanjul. So what? How is that cheating anybody?” Garcia told the Miami Herald. “If you said, Luis stole money or was involved in a Ponzi scheme, did something bad, that’s one thing. But this is nothing. I haven’t done anything.”
Except, according to Dietl, maybe lead people to assume he is someone he’s not.
Garcia, 41, married gorgeous blond German heiress Judith Kamps in 2005. Now he drives a Rolls-Royce and two Ferraris, according to a 34-page report prepared by Dietl. He was best man at tennis star Boris Becker’s 2009 wedding in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Despite his recent good fortune, Garcia told Dietl he will stop calling himself a Fanjul. But Dietl said, “I don’t believe him.”
The Fanjuls, who didn’t hire Dietl, want nothing to do with this story.
Dietl, an NYPD cop for 16 years, may be looking forward to a meeting between his knuckles and Garcia’s nose.