Billionaire Stephen Cloobeck’s arrest is in relation to his Penthouse Pet fiancée, the California Post can confirm.
A law enforcement source revealed he is accused of tampering with multiple witnesses in the case against his future wife, Adva Lavie.
A spokesman for the real estate tycoon also confirmed it was in relation to her allegedly stealing from old men she met on dating apps across Los Angeles.
Billionaire Stephen Cloobeck’s (pictured earlier this year) arrest is in relation to his Penthouse Pet fiancée, the California Post can confirm. David Buchan for California Post The rich Democratic donor, who once sheltered Eric Swalwell during his sexual misconduct controversy, was set to marry the 28-year-old Lavie in June in Jerusalem before her arrest derailed the event.
She’s facing six felony charges for allegedly preying on old men through dating apps. Lavie has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has to wear an ankle monitor as a condition of her release.
The 64-year-old Cloobeck, despite the claims against her, has insisted on marrying Lavie.
Cloobeck previously told the California Post he still wants to marry her, saying: “The marriage is still on, the date is now a secret.”
Lavie is not allowed outside of California due to the ankle monitor, preventing the couple’s plans to wed in the Middle East.
Lavie has been in and out of a Los Angeles courthouse for months, begging to have her electronic monitoring ankle bracelet removed since last year.
Lavie included racy modeling photos and letters from potential employers in a motion presented to the court to illustrate that she couldn’t prance around in a bathing suit with an ankle monitor.
In one of the photos, the Penthouse Pet is in a bikini, strutting down a runway. In another, she has on a tiara. Another shows her posing poolside.
One letter in the motion is addressed to the court from Morio Parker, the founder of the Ganja Collection, calls Lavie “an indispensable asset to our brand” and goes on to say: “Her image is inextricably linked to our corporate identity.”
Parker points to an upcoming ad campaign and asks the judge to “remove the ankle monitoring and mitigate the irreparable damage being done to her career”.
“The presence of an ankle monitor would make the resulting footage unusable,” he says.
In another letter from Brian Lucey, “a music mastering engineer on 11 Grammy winners,” he says: “I would not be able to hire her for any future music videos planned on the schedule.”
The Penthouse Pet has been out of California at least once since being under electronic monitoring. Footage of Cloobeck proposing to Lavie in February at an ultra-exclusive Las Vegas fundraiser while A-listers looked on went viral.
Her court case is expected to go to trial towards the end of May. If convicted on all counts, Lavie faces up to 11 years, eight months in state prison.
“These charges are false and we look forward to our day in court,” a spokesperson for him told The California Post.
West Hollywood deputies arrested Cloobeck after he turned himself in following a warrant issued for his arrest, The California Post can confirm. He was released on a $300,000 bond at 1:17 p.m. Tuesday after being held there since around 11 a.m. that day.
