Billionaire sugar baron Pepe Fanjul is refusing to fire his executive assistant, Chloe Black, despite her being married first to a former Ku Klux Klan leader, and then to the founder of a white-supremacist group.
Chloe, who has worked for the Cuban-born owner of Florida Crystals for more than 35 years, is the ex-wife of former KKK leader David Duke, and the current wife of Don Black, a former KKK grand wizard and member of the American Nazi Party. He now runs white-supremacist Web site StormFront.org.
Chloe's role with the powerful Palm Beach-based Fanjul family, which Page Six reported on in 2008, caused an outcry from civil-rights groups. Ironically, her duties include working with Fanjul's wife, Emilia, on The Glades, a Florida charter school that aims to help poor black and Latino children.
Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, told us: "Chloe Black is married to one of the most active white supremacists. We do not understand why she has not been fired by the Fanjul family. Her connections to white supremacists run so deep that it seems unthinkable that she work for a school for minority children." Chloe couldn't be reached for comment.
Reps for Fanjul yesterday confirmed Black was still working for the firm.
Paul Wilmot, spokesman for Florida Crystals, said: "While we may not agree with someone's politics, we wouldn't terminate them for that. We are a minority-owned company and enjoy a wide range of ethnic, racial, religious, lifestyle and political diversity among our thousands of employees.
"We will not discriminate against anybody, and that has been our policy forever. The rhetoric and beliefs of racial and other hate groups are abhorrent to Florida Crystals."
A source added, "This is business, it is not personal. Chloe had been with the company for 35 years when they found out about it, and she has always been a good employee. They don't agree with it, but they are not going to fire her."
