Law&Crime Sidebar - Playboy Model's Dating Scheme Duped 'Older' Men on Apps: Cops

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

An Israeli soldier turned Playboy model and "Penthouse Pet" is under investigation in Los Angeles for allegedly using dating apps to rob wealthy older men. Police have issued a special bulletin as more victims come forward, but she claims it's a giant conspiracy. Trial attorney Adante Pointer joins Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber to discuss the allegations, her response, and the legal implications.Detective Lopez - Lost Hills Station: 818-878-1808Detective Marsh - LAPD: 818-374-9500Crime Stoppers: 800-222-TIPS (8477)PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Thank you to Wildgrain for sponsoring! Visit https://wildgrain.com/sidebar and use code “SIDEBAR” at checkout to receive $30 your first box + free croissants for life! HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.ca. That's audible.ca. slash Wondery. Okay, so I have really exciting news. I've finally moved in to my new apartment. An Israeli soldier turned Playboy model and penthouse pet. is the subject right now of a large-scale investigation out in Los Angeles.

Police say she used dating apps to meet rich older men and then stole from their luxury homes. She is now the target of a special bulletin from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department as more alleged victims come forward to say she stole from them. But she is firing back, saying she is the victim in all of this. We're going to talk about it all with trial attorney Adante Pointer. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. I know how I have a lot of amazing family followers and they always tell me, Mia, please

share your outfits, please post your closet, please sell your items. Okay, I'm doing it. Police in Southern California are asking for the public's help in finding a 27-year-old content creator that's apparently been meeting up with older men in the Los Angeles area, seemingly under the guise of a date. But according to L.A. County detectives from the Malibu Lost Hill Station, she is less interested in their time and love and maybe more interested in their stuff. Now, before we dive into the allegations against her and her response, by the way, we've got to

talk a little bit about her background. We're speaking about Adva Lavi, who also uses the names Mia Ventura Shoshana and Shana. Now, she has apparently made appearances in Playboy and Penn House magazines in 2022. A news release from Clubhouse Media Group announced that she was joining HoneyDrip. This is a rival to only fans. According to the release, Levy is from Israel. She had served in the Israeli Defense Force for two years after her service. She worked as a flight attendant, according to Clubhouse Media Group.

But the COVID-19 pandemic hit, grounded planes worldwide. She was apparently laid off. Now, the release says that she shifted her focus to growing her social media following, that she worked as a model. And oftentimes, it seems, in these kind of alleged pornographic settings. Her social media pages. They are full of photos and videos of Levy showing off her high-end clothes and shoes, giving her fans tours of her walk-in closets and sharing these snapshots of vacations and exotic locales. But as we know, what's seen on Instagram and TikTok, it's sometimes often far from the truth. And that brings us to what we've got to talk about now, that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department released a special bulletin on October 8th asking people to be on the lookout for her. to let them know if they think they may have been victimized by her. As part of the bulletin, detective said, suspect Levy has been involved in a series of residential

burglaries throughout L.A. County targeting older men posing as a girlfriend or companion on social media dating platforms and applications. And the bulletin included photos of two cars that she's known to drive a black Porsche SUV, a white Mercedes-Benz sedan. This is quite the story. All right. So let's focus on it. I want to bring on trial attorney. Adante Pointer. Adonte, thanks so much for coming on. This is an interesting one, to say the least. You know, it's interesting because authorities didn't list any specific set of charges

on this special bulletin. I thought it was an interesting way to have this bulletin without listing it. First, A, is a common to list a bulletin like this. And B, is it a precursor to official charges? It's not so common for the police or law enforcement to put out almost like, could be on the lookout as if it was a stolen car about a person because typically by the time the police issue some type of written statement or a public statement about a particular person they're talking about a specific crime or specific set of crimes so this is not usual

although it does happen and what i think you're seeing here is the police are trying to put out a clarion call to anyone who may have been victimized by this person so that there are more people more charges and potentially more punishment for this internet vixing. We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here. I mean, we have limited information about what she's accused of doing. What kind of charges could she face down the line? And I guess the question would be, is it both state and federal charges if this is happening in different locales?

I mean, again, what could we potentially be looking at here? I know it's difficult since you don't have all the evidence and don't, but you're kind of getting the themes of what this alleged scheme is. Right. Well, what you can kind of deduce from what the police and law enforcement have put out there is that this is a woman who befriends men, be it through the promise of companionship or other type of services, and in the course of them being together, essentially steals their property. And so you're talking about larceny. You could be talking about, depending if she left and came back when they're not there, could be talking about more of a residential burglary charge. And as you mentioned, that could be state, but potentially federal. If she's flying across and transporting stuff and doing this across state lines, then you're talking about potential federal charges.

However, I think for it to wind up being a federal case, I think that you would have to be talking about a number of people and a value in terms of what was stolen or accused, which she's alleged to have stolen or taken from people being something that's, you're talking about six figures or more. I would think for it to warrant the energy and the resources and the attention of a federal prosecutor. Also, a little off topic here, actually very off topic,

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promo code sidebar at checkout. Do not miss out on their seasonal products. And would I be totally often saying potential federal charges could be something like wire? fraud? Am I thinking about it the right way? Well, wire fraud is certainly one that's in the that could be in the offing. Because with wire fraud, essentially you're saying, hey, you have, you know, engaged in communication by way of, be it email, be it some type of electronic device where you have defrauded somebody or attempted to, in this situation, sell them a bill of goods. Hey, I'm going to come, spend some time with you. When in actuality, your intent is to come and rob them or dispossess them of their property. So it's a potential. But, you know, I,

I think it'd be a little bit of a stretch, but they're doing, as we know, the investigation continues, and we don't know the full extent of how her house of cards was set up in terms of what she's alleged to have engaged in, which is to take property and luxury possessions and items from well-heeled clients. Do you think police, prosecutors, they're paying special attention to her social media accounts, the activity? Do you think they've subpoenaed some of these social media companies and what for? Social media is a treasure trove for law enforcement because what most people don't understand is as soon as you post it to social media, you no longer own and control it.

And it doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't disappear. It doesn't get erased. Even if you deactivate your account or archive something or delete something, there's a permanent record of what you post on social media. And we routinely see law enforcement using social media as a tool in order to nab bad guys and girls. So I totally think that they would be using social media as a way to not only see what her communications may be leading to that charge of what you said, wire fraud, but also her posting items and things that may not necessarily have been something she bought from a store, but something that she pilfered from someone's home. This raises a bigger question, and I want to be clear about it. She is not just accused of targeting older men in dating schemes, and if the allegations are true, she wouldn't be to be the. the first person accused of doing that. She is actually accused of stealing from all sorts of places. For example, you have this podcaster named Michael Sartain. He's the host of Access Vegas. And he said that Levy was a guest on an episode of his show. Apparently told Los Angeles

News outlet KTLA that at one point, Levy went into the green room and stole credit cards and cash from the purses of all the female panelists. She then returned to be part of that panel, quote, cool as a cucumber. This is according to Sartain. He told ABC 7, quote, she basically sits there for 90 minutes having stolen everyone's credit cards and everyone's cash out of their purses in the green room, just the female guests, and she just sat there, cool as a cucumber, just talking about the election while she had everyone's stuff in her purse just sitting right behind her.

Now, one of the women who was apparently victimized or allegedly victimized told KTLA that Levy tried to charge multiple things to her stolen American Express credit card, including an expensive hair appointment at a Beverly Hills salon. The victim did some investigating on her own and found out that Levy had booked the appointment under the name Mia Ventura. So Adante, not only is that allegation of true, pretty brazen, and it might tell you something about her attitude about what she's doing, but this feels like the kind of evidence that could be a gold mine for prosecutors if you have that digital trail. Absolutely. This may be the key that unlocks the entire case in terms of actually not just taking things from allegations but to a

potential conviction because what you have here is someone who as you mentioned went and did their own independent investigation and not only did they did they find out what name she booked it under but apparently in terms of a consultation she had with this with this beauty salon she facetime them and that in that in that beautician kept those videos that she sent which would lead would allow the law enforcement to identify her specifically as the person and link her to the credit card that was used to book the appointment. So this is a very critical piece of evidence and one that I'm sure police will rely heavily on as well as prosecutors in order to bring those charges against her. KTLA also apparently spoke with an adult film star named Cody Steele. He said that an

LA-based company hired a group of people to go to France to work at this party event. And both Steele and Levy, they were reportedly part of this group, and they were all put up in an Airbnb. Steele told KTLA that while the rest of the group was out, Levy stole from all of them. Quote, she decided to pretty much rob basically every person in that group, essentially anything marked with a designer label. Now, KTLA reports that French police made her give everything back. According to jail records reviewed by KTLA, Levy was last arrested in May on a felony charge, bailed out, details about the charge, the outcome, they weren't available.

Adonte, let's just start there real quick. Does that seem strange to you? She was booked, got out, no further information? Well, you know, that doesn't sound strange, but I do appreciate the idea of what could have happened in that moment or in that instance. And that is, someone made an allegation. She was arrested and booked on it. She bailed out, and then perhaps that victim or that witness, complaining witness, decided to

not go forward with prosecution, and perhaps the case fell apart because of that. But that's not so uncommon in these type of situations, because what you have to have is a victim who's not only willing to come forward and tell the police what happened, but then follow through with going to court. And if you're a high-profile person or a person that has a sensitive job or someone who, i.e., is married and shouldn't be entangled with someone like Levy, then you potentially would say, hey, as long as I got my stuff back, I'm going to wash my hands of this situation. I don't want to paint my own reputation with being entangled with her. That's a really good point.

In other words, they put out this bulletin, her name's now in the news. Are people going to be so quick to come forward? I believe Michael Sartain had said that, you know, if you have these people who have big jobs, they're known, are they going to want to come out and say they've been victimized by this woman, particularly if they were in some sort of romantic relationship with her? It might not be so easy to get people to come forward. Absolutely. You know, that's something that she may have taken this and thought of this as a calculated risk in the sense that, hey, I'm going to steal from these people, but I bet that they aren't willing to go the full length in order to prosecute me and get me convicted on these charges. Instead, these are people who are going to be hesitant because they don't want to be exposed for having been engaged with me in the first place. However, you have those situations, as you mentioned, where she essentially is accused of taking from all the the guests of a podcast who were women, and then also being in France and stealing from the people

who she's on a trip with. So this is a person who, at least by these allegations, really knows no bounds and may be better described as less of an OnlyFans model slash thief, but more of a kleptomaniac, someone who doesn't have an ability to essentially regulate themselves, and this is what she engages in, that thieving and stealing from everyone. Yeah, these are the allegations. And again, you know, she hasn't been charged. She's innocent and so proven guilty. I do have a question, though. So she was hit with that prior felony charge back in May bailed out. We don't know exactly more details about that. How could that potentially affect the current investigation? And how can that potentially affect any future charges she faces? Sure. Well, the fact that she was arrested and bailed out, we don't know if that charge essentially is on ice or has been dismissed. And so if more alleged victims come forward, then those new victims and those charges could be rolled into the current case and essentially can mushroom or compound the issues she faces from a criminal prosecution perspective. So it's to be determined how new charges may be joined for. if you will, with the old charge and turn into one single case, or perhaps the old charge is used by prosecutors as a way of a credibility litmus test when someone else comes to them and

says, hey, this person did something to me. They can go and look and say, you know what? She has a background for this. Let's take a closer look. Yep, that's a good point. By the way, remember I mentioned that she responded? Okay, don't see this every day. So it appears that Levy herself has apparently responded to the allegations. The Daily Mail reached out to her reportedly over the phone and she said that she hadn't heard about the accusations until they called. According to the Daily Mail, LeVise said, I think when you probably hang out with someone really powerful and someone really connected, if you piss them off, it's problematic because they can really bleep you over. When the Daily Mail

pushed her for more details about this alleged conspiracy, she reportedly hung up on that. Adante, your response to that. Well, I mean, which she's saying in terms of what could happen to a person who gets on the wrong side of someone who's powerful and well connected is very true. The question is, does that shoe fit on her foot for this circumstance and on this occasion? And we don't know that. So that could just be her offering up some type of contrived excuse in order to explain away how her name is mixed up in these allegations. Or it could be the truth in that she rent a foul of someone who, in the course of her dealings, and now she's paying the price because they're seeking some type of

revenge or retribution. However, if that's going to be her defense, she better have her prepared for court if she should see the inside of a courtroom. Do you think she's being represented by counsel right now? In other words, do you think counsel would have recommended that she speak to the Daily Mail? Most, if not all criminal defense attorneys would tell her you should remain silent. You should not be giving up your alibi or explaining away how or why you're involved in this situation. Why? Because you have a Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. And oftentimes when people give statements, you wind up seeing it used against you in the court of law. Now, according to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, L.V. is 5'7, 104 pounds,

brown hair, brown eyes. They're asking for anyone who has information about these alleged burglaries at the homes of rich men or any of these other alleged bad behavior to reach out. Now, we have the contact information for two detectives directly involved in the case. We have it up on the screen now. We're going to put it in the description. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through crime stoppers. So that may be something that people who don't want to be a part of this in some way or have their names out there may do. Now, of the tips coming in, Adante, how does law enforcement actually sort through which ones are genuine?

Do they try to have a team that corroborates all these accounts? How do they even go through it? assuming they're getting a lot of information right now they're certainly going to prioritize the leads that are coming in and that and they would now if i were law enforcement in my understanding in terms of the way their investigations work they're certainly looking for corroboration law enforcement is looking for anyone who's calling in with tips or leads to have some type of corroborating evidence be it it's an email a text message a dm that shows that they actually met up with this person and or a picture a video or whatever the claimed item that was taken and obviously a story

as to how she would get access to that item, which may expose that person to having met her under less than prudent circumstances, i.e., through the OnlyFans page, or perhaps on a date or something like that. So a person would have to think through that in order to corroborate what their claims are, because law enforcement gets tips all,

law enforcement receive tips all the time, but they're not looking for any tip, they're looking for tips that actually have some substance and corroboration. Two points I wanted to get to, the anonymous tip line. Someone may be able to put a tip in anonymously, but wouldn't they ultimately have to testify or provide information in some capacity? I mean, wouldn't their identities get out there, or am I not thinking about it the right way?

You are thinking about it the correct way. And having represented many people in criminal cases throughout the state of California and in federal cases, too, I know full and well that anonymous tip lines are the furthest thing from anonymous if the police are interested in your information. So, yes, a person may come forward and give an anonymous tip, but in order for the police to actually prosecute someone on that tip, that tipster will likely need to participate in the criminal prosecution because a defendant has a right to confront their accuser, which means that an accuser would need to come to court and face the person that they're accusing in a court of law.

Now, before we wrap things up, obviously we don't know what potential charges she may face here. We talked about before there could be more of a concrete, simplified case if you're talking about a paper trail, particularly for alleged fraud. But in cases like this, and I'm sure you've seen them before, what are typical defenses? If you're talking about a honey trap, or you're talking about somebody who's allegedly taking advantage of men for money or women for money, is it, hey, they gave me this money. Hey, I had an allowance or what are potential defense? I know it's a tough question. Since we don't even know what the charges are or what the evidence is,

There is no specific criminal case in line right now with this. But what do you see sometimes from a defense? You see that, look, I didn't take anything. These things were given to me. These are gifts that were given to me. And now you have someone, the relationship has soured or perhaps their significant other, has found out that they've been giving me gifts, are doing nice things for me. And so they're looking to cover up what they did by saying, I took it, I stole from them.

I don't have permission to have these items. And so that's the typical defense that you see, or you're saying, hey, I don't even know this person. And there's no trail to show that I do or that I was with them at the time that they claimed the theft occurred. So you're looking at a connection. And then you're also saying, well, if I have it, I was given this stuff. These are items gifted to me. Yeah. And to be clear, what we've been talking about are allegations that are being presented more in the media than in a court of law.

We don't know what the evidence would be that she was using credit cards or stealing stuff. these are accounts. I don't know what the evidence is, but I don't know, pretty interesting story to say the least. Dante Pointer, thanks so much for taking the time. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Look forward to the next time. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you share your podcasts. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus.

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