Meet the Ferragamo-loving American socialite - known as 'Princess' to Somalia's pirates- who claims to be the country's key to prosperity

• Michele Ballarin says she has had a 'behind the scenes' hand in negotiating the release of Somali pirate hostages
•  
• She says she was once 'known as the Coco Chanel in the children’s industry'

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

At the surface Michele Ballarin may look like a thoroughbred socialite, but according to a new interview, she holds so much influence in Somalia that many of the country’s notorious pirates refer to her as ‘amira’, or ‘princess’ in Arabic.

In the latest Washington Post magazine, Ballarin, a 58-year-old hailing from Virginia, says that her humanitarian efforts to eradicate piracy in Somalia have earned her a large fan base in the country.

 

A senior U.S. government official once even went on-the-record to say that Ballarin ‘has more sway in Somalia than the whole U.S. Government.’

 

Somali princess: Michelle Ballarin (pictured above) is said to have 'more sway in Somalia than the whole U.S. government'

She has now embarked on a new humanitarian venture with Somalia’s former president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to help provide housing for the country’s large population of refugees.

Ballarin says that she is known to negotiate with Somalia’s notorious pirates, and that she has had a ‘behind the scenes’ hand in organizing the release of pirate hostages.

She also says that she has carried out peaceful conversations with all walks of Somali life as part of her work, including pirates and members of the Al-Shabab group, the terrorist organization responsible for last month’s brutal attacks on a Nairobi mall.

She says she is not afraid of these more feared sects of Somali society. ‘They would have a tsunami on their hands,’ 

Ballarin said of what would happen if she were injured by a Somali fringe group. ‘When I was in the north at one point, there was close to 80,000 people trying to get to me. They call me the “Mother of Somalia”…there would be terrible repercussions.’

'When I was in the north...there was close to 80,000 people trying to get to me. They call me the “Mother of Somalia"'

But despite her pull within Somali society, Ballarin has apparently never worked for the U.S. Government.

In 2007, she sent an ‘unsolicited letter’ to the CIA offering her services in tracking down Al Qaeda networks in Africa. The bureau sent her a letter back saying that they were ‘not interested’ in her services and did not authorize her to carry out her terrorist-finding mission on its behalf.

Friends in high places: Michelle Ballarin sits with business partner and former Somali president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed

But Ballarin was undeterred. According to the paper, she sought solace at the Pentagon the following year—an effort that was rewarded with a classified contract for an undisclosed amount of money. Within a year, the contract was reportedly terminated for ‘nonperformance.’

Esther Hebert, who has worked with Ballarin, told The Washington Post: ‘She has an amazing ability to attract very powerful people. Then it all falls apart.’

‘I was known as the Coco Chanel in the children’s industry’

Ballarin had many careers before focusing her attentions on Somalia, the paper says. In 1986 she ran for Congress and lost, a defeat that prompted her to design children’s clothes, which she says were sold in Macy’s. ‘I was known as the Coco Chanel in the children’s industry,’ she said of her design career. (Ballarin is also a fashion plate who is cited as wearing Armani and Ferragamo clothing in the piece)

Ballarin’s childrenswear business closed following her first marriage (to a man 35 years her senior). She then took up work as an executive assistant to an orthodontist to try and keep her and her son financially afloat.

Her luck changed with her second marriage to Gino Ballarin, a longtime maître d’ at New York’s famous 21 Club. The couple relocated to the Washington D.C. metro area after their wedding, where Gino worked in a similar capacity at the Georgetown Club, while Michele dabbled in investment banking.

Coastal storm: Ballarin says that she has had a hand in negotiating the release of Somali pirate hostages

Her foray into finance gave Michele access to a vast array of wealthy people. By enlisting what seems to be an acute knack for sociability, she quickly cemented her status as a gala circuit-ing businesswoman on the D.C. scene.

That positioning gave her access to an encounter with an ‘elder Sufi sheik’ from Somalia’s prevailing religion. Ballarin became fascinated with the Sufi religion, as well as Somali culture as a whole. She soon began making goodwill trips to the country and amassed a following of Somali constituents who nicknamed her their princess.

Her sage Somali influence spread, and in 2009 then-President Ahmed named her his ‘presidential advisor for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.’ The appointment came at the heat of Somalia’s pirating crisis.

In fact, Ballarin has already been involved in several Somalia development programs that did not work out. Her nation-building program, dubbed the ‘organic solution’, included plans for everything from banks to commercial airlines. The project dissolved after nine months, with many of its investors failing to recoup tens of thousands of dollars, The Washington Post reports.

Another Ballarin company titled Archangel similarly never got off the ground.

Brick and mortar: Ballarin has now embarked on a new project with President Ahmed, building tiny modular homes (in the foreground, above) for Somali refugees

But Ballarin--who provided multiple photo albums to The Washington Post writer as proof of her popularity in Somalia in which she was seen ‘posing with Somali politicians, warlords, clan leaders, and Sufis,’--has now teamed up with former President Ahmed again.

'The problem with Michele is separating fact from fiction. What is real, and what is made up?'

They have begun work on a housing project for Somali refugees called the ‘Oasis Foundation for Hope’. Ballarin and Ahmed have already created a modular demo with the help of pro-bono contractors, as was the case with many of her former business ventures.

She unveiled the modular home to investors and government compatriots in August, admitting to The Washington Post that Ahmed had already ‘identified’ $300 million in project funding.

Geoff Whiting, a former naval intelligence officer who worked with both Ballarin and Hebert, admitted: ‘The problem with Michele is separating fact from fiction. What is real, and what is made up?