July 19, 2008 --
THE wife of billionaire sugar and real estate kingpin Pepe Fanjul has a not-so-sweet little secret - one of her well-paid aides has close personal links to the Ku Klux Klan.
Chloe Black, who assists socialite and philanthropist Emilia Fanjul, is the ex-wife of David Duke, former national leader of the KKK. And she's currently married to Don Black - a former Alabama KKK chieftain who founded the notorious Web site Stormfront, which supports preserving "White Western culture."
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) uncovered the link in a Quest magazine piece about Emilia and her financing of a new campus for Glades Academy, a charter school in Pahokee, Fla., that educates poor blacks and migrant workers. Chloe, an administrative assistant with the Fanjuls' Florida Crystals company, was listed as the contact for more information.
On its Web site, the SPLC says Chloe met Duke at a meeting of the White Youth Alliance in the 1970s, and she later became vice president of his Knights of the KKK. The site says she's been to several meetings of groups linked to white supremacy movements in recent years.
Reached at her office, Chloe told Page Six: "I haven't had a single thing to do with that in 30 years . . . I don't have any comment."
A Fanjul family friend told Page Six: "They were completely shocked and surprised at finding out about her personal life. They had absolutely no idea."
A Fanjul rep, Paul Wilmot, told us Black "remains presently employed by the company and that is all we're going to say."
In a statement, Florida Crystals said: "The rhetoric and beliefs of racial and other hate groups are abhorrent to Florida Crystals. We are minority-owned and enjoy a wide range of ethnic, racial, religious, lifestyle and political diversity . . . We don't comment on the private lives of our employees."
