Brian Maccaba, chief executive of Irish FX dealing technology company Cognotec, is to figure in a high court defamation case amid allegations that he offered $1 million cash to the husband of a North London nursery school teacher in return for a life-long relationship with the man's wife.
In a bizarre real-life reprise of the Hollywood blockbuster Indecent Proposal, Maccaba has been cast in a role similar to that played by Robert Redford, as the millionaire playboy who offers $1 million to a couple, played in the movie by Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore, if she agrees to spend a night with him.
Maccaba allegedly made his proposal to Nathalie and Alan Attar in a letter hand-written in rhyming couplets. The $1 million cash offer is referred to in the note as a "golden key" that would "set her free" and give the husband a "bachelor's freedom again".
The letter, which was splashed on the front page of The Sunday Times, has become the prime exhibit in a forthcoming high court defamation case.
A rabbi to whom the couple turned for advice reportedly accused Maccaba of being a known adulterer who pursued young Jewish newlyweds. Maccaba has countered by suing the rabbi for slander.
Friends of the Irish businessman, a catholic convert to Judaism and a big wheel in the North London Jewish community, claim the note was an innocent poem that has been blown out of all proportion.