Gabriela Teixeira, a Brazilian-born birth doula, has successfully reclaimed a £5 million estate following a High Court ruling. The court found that trust documents designed to divert £3 million in property to her late husband's brother and mohter were a sham.

The 'fiction' of the £3 million property transfer

Deputy Master Timothy Bowles has ruled that a series of trust documents intended to redistribute the wealth of the late Abbas Moaven were a "fiction." According to the report,these documents were signed only weeks before Abbas Moaven died of cancer in 2012, and they purported to move four London properties—valued at over £3 million at the time—away from his widow and children.

The court determined that these declarations were not genuine redistributions of ownership but were instead a calculated effort to circumvent the deceased's actual intentions .. By labeling the trusts as a sham, the High Court has ordered that the assets be restored to the estate of Abbas Moaven, ensuring that Gabriela Teixeira and her two children, Elis and Aryan, receive their rightful inheritance.

From 1982 Iranian emigration to West London real estate

The wealth at the center of this dispute was the result of decades of entrepreneurial growth.. Abbas Moaven and his brother Amir emigrated from Iran in 1982, beginning their business journey with a clothing shop in West London. As the report says, the brothers later pivoted into the mobile phone market and the restaurant industry, eventually accumulating a high-end property portfolio in some of London's most expensive neighborhoods, including Kensington, Holland Park, and Queen's Gate.

Gabriela Teixeira entered this family circle in 2000 after meeting Abbas Moaven at his restaurant,The Gate, located near Notting Hill Gate. The couple maried in 2002, and Gabriela later transitioned into a career as a birth doula and yoga teacher, a role she described as a "call to serve" following the birth of her first child. This professional background stood in stark contrast to the aggressive legal maneuvering that followed her husband's death.

Amir Moaven's claim that Gabriela might 'disappear to Brazil'

The trial revealed a deep rift between the widow and her brother-in-law. Barrister Alexander Learmonth KC presented meeting notes from a solicitor which indicated that Amir Moaven was concerned that Gabriela Teixeira might "disappear to Brazil" with their children. These notes suggest that Amir Moaven attempted to "regulariise" the family's financial affairs while Abbas Moaven was gravely ill in the hospital.

While the court viewed these actions as a scheme to lock assets away from the widow, the source does not provide a direct rebuttal or testimony from Amir Moaven regarding these accusations. It remains unclear wheher the brother-in-law truly believed there was a risk of the assets leaving the country or if this narrative was constructed solely to justify the creation of the sham trusts.

Why four London properties were the key to estate solvency

The legal battle was not merely about the distribution of wealth, but about the very survival of the estate. Alexander Learmonth KC argued during the proceedings that if the trust documents had been upheld, the estate of Abbas Moaven would likely have become insolvent. This is because the estate carried existing debts that could only be covered by the value of the four disputed properties.

By restoring these assets, the High Court has prevented a financial collapse that would have left Gabriela Teixeira and her children, now aged 22 and 19, with nothing. The ruling serves as a stark reminder of how easily "deathbed" documentation can be challenged when there is evidence of bad faith or a lack of genuine intent to transfer ownership.