The Penthouse Pet accused of shaking down old men for money was found with over $200,000 in cash, multiple gold coins and bars, and a firearm when cops finally caught up with her, the California Post has learned.
Police raided Adva Lavie’s apartment with a search warrant on Holt Ave in Los Angeles in May 2025. They came across the cash and gold locked in two safes, along with at least 40 items of clothing she was accused of stealing, Detective Andrea March said.
The clothing and 20 pairs of shoes found in Lavie’s lair are believed to belong to Elizabeth Craine, who was storing them in her 80-year-old father Michael Crain’s Beverly Hills mansion at the time he was dating the Penthouse Pet.
Michael Craine and his daughter discovered $100,000 worth of clothes and handbags had gone missing from the closets — including Elizabeth Craine’s wedding dress, he testified.
When she checked Lavie’s Instagram account, Elizabeth Craine allegedly noticed the model wearing a “very distinct, hard to get” zebra-print dress that had vanished from her wardrobe.
Prosecutors allege between 2023 and 2025 Lavie used dating apps to cultivate relationships with wealthy older men and younger women across Los Angeles County, including in Beverly Hills and WeHo.
Police also allegedly Lavie was shaking down her victims for money in the explosive court documents.
Alireza Salehpour met Lavie at an art festival in Miami and later the two had dinner together in Los Angeles. The next day Lavie sent an Apple Pay request for a $50 Uber fare, and $100 for time spent together at the restaurant, according to testimony.
When Salehpour refused to send money, Lavie posted a pic of him on her Instagram account with the vicious message “ugly, cheap, or broke” and texted that if he didn’t send the $50, she wouldn’t take it down, the documents say.
A Hermosa Beach man, Scott Thurman, who met Lavie on Tinder also found fraudulent charges on his credit cards, including hundreds spent on cosmetics and Southwest Airline tickets, police testified.
When Thurman threatened to file a lawsuit against Lavie, Thurman told police she accused him of sexual assault.
In court, her attorney Louis Shapiro read a text Lavie wrote to Thurman: “I will never forget the night I was crying and told you I wanted to leave and you grabbed me and lifted me onto the bed in the bedroom and f**ked me while I was crying with tears.”
“All I asked was forgiveness from you.” Thurman responded, according to Shapiro.
Another alleged victim, Eden Lynn Strelioff, was a guest on the Las Vegas podcast “Access Las Vegas” on election night in 2025 and recalled leaving her purse in the green room, police said.
Someone named Mia Ventura, Lavie’s alias, was also on the podcast that night. Strelioff later found she was missing two credit cards and $500 from her purse, according to testimony.
Two charges on one of the stolen cards totaling $900 were made at the posh Farré Salon in Beverly Hills later that month by Lavie, the court papers said.
The alleged honeytrapper is set to be arraigned Monday on six felony charges, including two counts of grand theft, two counts of burglary and two counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information.
The Post has learned Lavie is engaged to billionaire Stephen Cloobeck who’s burned more than $1 million on representative Eric Swalwell’s run for California governor.
The couple are planning to get married on June 18 near the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Cloobeck told The Post via a text message.
Lavie is not allowed to leave California under the terms of her house arrest and electronic monitoring. Cloobeck is paying for Lavie’s attorney fees, The Post learned.
Cloobeck said his fiancée was involved in the dark underbelly of Los Angeles society, where rich men pay hundreds of dollars to women to join them for dinner.
The expectation is at least one of the women will then go home with one of the man. “These predators think they get something for it,” Cloobeck said. “It’s gross, it’s disgusting.”
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