Ely Calil (8 December 1945 – 28 May 2018) was a Lebanese businessman holding

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citizenship. He was one of the richest men in Britain; ''

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'' estimated his wealth in 2010 to be around £350 million.

Life

His ancestry can be traced back to 1920s or 30s when his family set up their home in

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after leaving

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

, but then returned to Lebanon after Atatürk's policies discriminating against

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. Before he was born, his family set up an oil mill for groundnut processing in Lebanon in 1941. His father, George Khalil, died in 1970, leaving behind two sons, him lyand Bernard, and was said to have bequeathed £20 million to Ely.

Allegations

In 2002, Calil was arrested in

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in connection with the

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scandal but was released on appeal. In 2004 Calil was alleged to be part in the failed coup d'état in Equatorial Guinea and was sought by courts both in Equatorial Guinea and

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. In September 2004, he was sued by the Equatorial Guinean government for allegedly having raised $750 000 to finance the plot.

Personal life

Ely Calil was a father of six including actor

George Calil George Calil (born 29 March 1973) is an English actor known for his role in the TV mini-series '' Band of Brothers,'' where he portrayed Sergeant James H. "Mo" Alley, Jr. Early life Calil was born in England in 1973. He is the son of Lebane ...

and was married three times. His first wife was a

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tobacco heiress named Frances Condon. They married at a

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church in Farm Street, Mayfair in 1972. They had two children: George and Katherine. His second wife was Lebanese socialite Hayat Emma Mroue who gave him two more children, Karim and May. They divorced in 1985 and afterwards she married property tycoon Lord Palumbo. Calil also has a son Stefan from a relationship with Noor Birol. Calil's third wife was Indian Renuka Jain, with whom he had a daughter, Yasmine. They also went on to divorce. In 2006 he sold his Chelsea home, Sloane House, for an estimated £45 million to Sir Anthony Bamford. He then lived in a rented £15 million mansion in Hampstead, London. He was known to be very private person and reclusive from publicity. He did not give interviews to newspapers and the press had taken only one photo of him over a forty-year period. In 2008 a gang of burglars targeted his home in Hampstead, but were caught by police and his possessions returned to him. Calil died on 28 May 2018 after falling down stairs.

References

External links

Mark Thatcher & Simon Mann's African coup - The Crime library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calil, Ely 1945 births 2018 deaths People from Kano State Lebanese businesspeople British businesspeople British people of Lebanese descent Ely Nigerian emigrants to the United Kingdom Nigerian businesspeople Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in London