The Shocking Reason Gigi Hadid's Father Is Facing Criminal Charges

While It model Gigi Hadid is arguably having her best year ever, and her mother, Yolanda Foster, is going through an amicable divorce, her father, Mohamed Hadid, is having a far from good year
— he's facing criminal charges for illegally building a megamansion in Los Angeles.

In case you didn't know, Hadid is a real-estate developer who has earned his $100 million net worth through developing properties like Ritz-Carlton hotels and luxurious mansions around the world. Most recently, however, he decided to (illegally) build a 30,000-square-foot mansion in the LA neighborhood of Beverly Crest, despite months of orders from the city to stop all further construction; the city even revoked his permits!

According to Curbed, the giant home would boast a 2,000-foot-long driveway, a 20-car garage, and multiple pools. It sounds like any millionaire's dream home, except for the fact that it poses some major problems — unstable ground being the most dangerous for the house itself and those below it. Based on the photos obtained by TMZ, it's easy to see why the unfit ground could cause serious landslides.

So, after months of battling and dismissing orders, Hadid is now a defendant, and his company "was charged with three building complaints," TMZ reports. Apparently, Hadid isn't concerned by the charges; in fact, it's being reported that he's saying it's all a big misunderstanding. What the city and his neighbors think is one megamansion is actually two houses and therefore not violating building codes. The case has even caught the attention of The New York Times, which took a deeper look into the unsettling trend of wealthy foreigners buying and selling houses with impunity under the protection of shell companies. While he has yet to speak out publicly, he recently posted this telling self-quote on his Instagram page: "The higher you get, the more people want to climb just to knock you down. Just remember, only a fraction realize their own dreams and will never reach where you are."popsugar





Image Sources: Getty / Rochelle Brodin Photo