Brother-in-law’s £490k court bill after losing fight with widow yoga teacher over husband’s £5m fortune

Brother-in-law’s £490k court bill after losing fight with widow yoga teacher over husband’s £5m fortune Birth doula and yoga teacher Gabriela Teixeira, 51, married multimillionaire London restaurateur Abbas Moaven in 2002 - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments The brother-in-law of a yoga teacher has been hit with a huge £490,000 court bill after losing a bitter family feud over her restaurant boss husband's £5m fortune. Birth doula and yoga teacher Gabriela Teixeira, 51, married multimillionaire London property investor and restaurateur Abbas Moaven in 2002 after first meeting at one of his eateries in Notting Hill in 2000. They had two children and lived at a series of high-end properties around some of the capital's most desirable neighbourhoods, including Holland Park and Kensington. But after Abbas died, aged 45, in 2012, Gabriela was shocked to learn that his estate - which she and her two children, who are now adults, were due to share - could be worth nothing. Weeks before his death, her husband had signed legal documents declaring that four valuable properties were not entirely his, but in fact shared with his mum and brother Amir, "substantially diminishing" the multimillion-pound estate she thought she would inherit and potentially leaving it worthless due to debts. Alongside her children, Elis and Aryan, she launched a High Court battle over the properties, arguing that their entire value should be included in her husband's estate, boosting her family's inheritance to as much as £5m. High Court judge, Deputy Master Timothy Bowles, ultimately handed her victory, finding that the documents Abbas signed declaring the properties were not entirely his were a "sham," designed to prevent his widow from accessing most of his wealth after he died and that the story behind them being drawn up was a "fiction". This week, he went on to declare Amir liable to pay the £490,000 legal costs of the case, also holding that Abbas' accountant Behzad Faiz and conveyancing solicitor Marios Robert Pittalis are also jointly responsible for paying £473,000 of the bill, having been "complicit" in the creation of the "sham" documents. Gabriela Teixeira teaches yoga and also works as a birth doula, a non-clinical professional who provides physical and emotional support to families before, during and after childbirth. Her husband, Abbas, and his brother, Amir, moved to the UK from Iran in 1982 to live with their father and later began a west London clothing shop called Homeboy together. They then moved into the then burgeoning mobile phone market in the mid-1990s and later restaurants, while also buying up a series of properties around the capital. Gabriela and Abbas met at his then restaurant, The Gate, close to Notting Hill Gate Station, and began dating, eventually marrying. Abbas was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and died in May 2012, with his last will leaving his estate in third shares to his widow and two children, Elis Teixeira Moaven, 22, and Aryan Moaven, 19. But the court heard the estate was "substantially diminished" because, only weeks before he died and while in hospital in April 2012, Abbas had signed fake trust documents, declaring that four properties in his name were actually owned in one-third shares by himself, his brother Amir and their mother, Nazemi Tehran, who has since died. Gabriela's barrister, Alexander Learmonth KC, argued that the documents were "obviously shams," designed by Abbas to prevent his wife or creditors from making a claim to most of his assets after his death. He pointed to an attendance note from a meeting between Abbas' solicitor Mr Pittalis and Amir, when Abbas was "seriously unwell" at home and his brother was seeking to "regularise their affairs." The lawyers' note stated: "His concern was what would happen if Abbas passed away and his wife disappeared with the two children to Brazil. How could they prevent this, and how could they prevent her from having access to the funds from the property assets?" A subsequent note following another meeting added: "Amir confirmed his main intention was to secure Abbas’ children’s welfare because he was certain that any assets passed over to Abbas’ wife would be dissipated.” Mr Learmonth told the judge the notes "establish clearly that, if the declarations of trust were really intended to have any legal effect at all, then they were entered into with the clear aim of defeating a claim by Gabriela and/or her children against the estate." He told the judge that Gabriela was anxious to restore the properties to the estate and get her inheritance, adding: "She is unable to sustain the lifestyle she enjoyed during Abbas’ lifetime, while he was still well, on her income working as a doula. "It is deeply unsatisfactory that 14 years later, Gabriela and her two children – now grown to from infancy to adulthood – have still not been able to obtain a proper account of Abbas’ estate, let alone to receive their inheritance." Allowing the claim in May, the judge dismissed arguments by Amir, now 56, that the four properties - which include Gabriela's former homes in Queen's Gate, Holland Park and Brasenose House, Kensington, as well as rental property in Maida Hill - were only ever put into Abbas' name for "cultural reasons" because he was the elder brother. "Contrary to the false narrative set out in the recitals to declarations of trust, the properties are not and never have been held on the informal trusts alleged in those recitals and in the declarations of trust," he said. "The extrinsic evidence fully supports the view that Abbas has always been the legal and beneficial owner of the properties." Going on this week to order Amir, Mr Pittalis and Mr Faiz to foot the bill for the court fight, the judge said the declarations of trust were "no more than deceitful forms of words, or ‘pieces of paper’, designed to convey to those to whom they were deployed that Abbas’ estate was very much smaller than it truly was. "Amir’s position was and is straightforward. He elected to put forward an entirely fictional and dishonest case, in order to give credence to the sham declarations of trust." Mr Pittalis and Mr Faiz were also "equally as involved" as each other in creating the documents, he continued, rejecting Mr Pitallis' claim to have been duped into getting invovled by Amir. "Far from being duped by Amir, Mr Pittalis was...complicit with Amir and with Mr Faiz in the creation and execution of the sham declarations of trust and complicit, therefore, in the creation of the state of affairs that has given rise to this trial," he said. "I can see no reason at all as to why Mr Pittalis should not be liable in costs for his role in the conduct that, in complicity with Amir and Mr Faiz, has given rise to this trial. "Correspondingly, given that complicity, I see no reason at all as to why that liability should not be joint and several with Amir and Mr Faiz." He went on to order that the costs be assessed on the punishing "indemnity basis" due to the conduct of the three men in the litigation. "In this case, the conduct of Amir, Mr Pittalis and Mr Faiz, which, in concert with Abbas, has given rise to this litigation, has been manifestly and radically outside the norm," he said. "They chose to deliberately put in place sham documents with the intention, not merely of misleading those to whom they were deployed, but, ultimately, with the intention of misleading the court. "The conduct of Amir, Mr Pittalis and Mr Faiz, in respect of the declarations of trust was, from the very outset, directed towards the creation of sham documents which could be sustained in court and which might, or would, deceive the court. "That conduct was, in consequence, central to and causative of the current trial and it is, for that reason and in consequence of their role in the creation of sham documents for those purposes that they should now, the dishonest nature of the documents having been exploded, be liable, on the indemnity basis, for the costs that have had to be incurred in exposing the deceitful nature of the declarations of trust." The full costs bills will be assessed at a later date, but the judge ordered the men to jointly pay £154,800 up front towards Gabriela and the kids' costs and £318,800 towards costs run up by the administrators of Abbas' estate. Another £17,000 is Amir's sole responsibility to pay. Partly due to complex tax and debt issues, the exact size of Abbas' estate has not yet been calculated, with lawyers estimating that it could be as much as £5m with the four properties included. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments