Law&Crime Sidebar - Playboy Model's Secret Schemes Land Her Behind Bars: Cops

Starting point is 00:00:00 A former model who appeared in Playboy and Penhouse is now having to pose for a mugshot after Los Angeles officials say she lured older men out on dates and then robbed them. That's the accusation. After months of encouraging Southern Californians to be on the lookout for her, the DA now says she'll finally have to answer for her alleged crimes. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. All right, so we first told you about 28-year-old.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Adva Levy, who sometimes uses the stage name Mia Ventura last fall. Now, Los Angeles County law enforcement apparently put out a bulletin with what appears to be her driver's license photo, as well as these details about the car she drove, a black Porsche SUV, a white Mercedes-Benz sedan. But now we're getting new details from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office about Levee's alleged crimes and when she could face a judge and jury. So, according to the DA's office between 2023 and 2025, Levy is accused of using dating apps to cultivate relationships with wealthy older men and younger women, all in the West Lake Village, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Beverly Hills areas that she allegedly gained access to their

Starting point is 00:01:16 homes by posing as a girlfriend or a travel companion. And then she's accused of stealing cash and gold and high-end designer items. So she has been charged with six, felony counts right now. Two counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information, two counts of grand theft, one count of first-degree residential burglary, one count of first-degree residential burglary with person present. Los Angeles DA Nathan Hockman said in a statement, quote, at her trial, we will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant exploited trust built through online relationships to gain access to victims' homes and steal from them. Her ability to deceptively influence others, whether in person or online, has now come to an end.

Starting point is 00:02:02 Our office is committed to holding accountable anyone who uses deception and manipulation to prey on others. And according to the DA's office, Levy faces up to 11 years, eight months in state prison if she's convicted on all those counts. So it's really, the stakes are high. She's entered a not guilty plea. She's scheduled to be arraigned at the Van Nuys Courthouse on April 6th. For now, she's out of custody with an ankle monitor. This is per the court. docket. She's been ordered to stay away from the alleged victims in this case. And apparently, it's not just Southern California, where Levy is accused of running her schemes. According to reporting from ABC7, police reports have been filed against Levy in Nevada, Florida, France, Italy. One of the

Starting point is 00:02:42 first people to speak publicly about Levy's alleged sticky fingers was a podcaster named Michael Sartain, host of Access Vegas. He told Los Angeles news outlet KTLA that Levy was a guest on an episode of his show, some point, according to him, Levy went into the green room and stole the credit cards and the cash from the purses of all the then female panelists. She then apparently returns to be part of the panel and that she was, quote, cool as a cucumber. 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 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.

Starting point is 00:03:30 Now, one of the women who was 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 Hill salon. The victim did some investigating, apparently, on her own, and said she found out that Levy had allegedly booked the appointment under the name Mia Ventura. Another alleged victim spoke with the Los Angeles Times back in December about her experience, with Levy, quote, Amber Carous Bassick, an international lingerie and swimwear model. She told the times that LeVie befriended her, invited her on an all-expenses-paid trip to Abitha,

Starting point is 00:04:07 but that all-expenses paid part turned out to be too good to be true because Bassett claims that when she got to the hotel, it wasn't paid for. So she had to pay more than $2,000 to check in. And then when Levy shows up, she was being followed by a taxi driver who was demanding to be paid. Now, Levy apparently told Basick that her American Express wasn't working in Europe, so Bassick would have to pay the driver. From there, Bassett claims they would be out all night trying to attract older men to pay for their food and their drinks. She also claims that Levy would take photos of men's credit cards. Quote, I thought this trip was a girl's trip to make content, but for Levy, the whole trip was just to use me to attract her next victims. All she wanted to do was hunt for rich older men.

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Starting point is 00:06:13 According to the Daily Mail, LeVie told them over the phone, 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. But when the Daily Mail pushed for more details about this apparent scheme, she reportedly hung up on them. So what else do we know about her? What else do we know about Levy? Well, she's appeared on the cover of Playboy, was chosen as the penthouse pet of the month in July of 2023. 2020, a news release from Clubhouse Media Group announced that she was joining Honeydrip, which is kind of a rival to only fans. And according to that release, Levy is from Israel. served in the IDF for two years. After her service, she worked as a flight attendant. This is, again,

Starting point is 00:06:51 according to Clubhouse Media Group, but the COVID-19 pandemic grounded planes worldwide and she was laid off. The release says that she shifted her focus to growing her social media following and working as a model. What do we make of this? What can we expect? Philip DeBays with us, former L.A. County Deputy Public Defender. Thank you so much for taking the time, sir. It's good to see you. Good morning, Jesse. How are you? Good. What do we make of these charges? Which were the ones if You are defending her. You say this is the ones I want to focus on the most. This is the one that I'm concerned about the most.

Starting point is 00:07:22 Or you say they group them all together, all or nothing? Well, legally, I think the most serious charge is the first degree residential burglary for several reasons. Number one, it can carry up to six years in state prison and you'd have to serve 85% of it. Number two, she is not an American citizen. And under federal immigration law, it could be deemed to be an aggravated felony, in other words, a crime of violence. And it would render her deportable. So she would be on a one-way slowboat back to Tel Aviv. So as a criminal defense attorney, we have to not only protect their criminal legal interests under due process, but there's an extra obligation and an extra duty to protect their immigration status.

Starting point is 00:08:11 So we have to do whatever we can to allow them to remain in the country. Now, by the way, according to the court docket, she has hired private counsel to the defender, so it doesn't appear that she's going to be using a public defender. But either way, what are the first steps you would take in building a defense? Because I do wonder, what is the evidence they have against her, right? Do you think it's surveillance? Do you think it's what was in allegedly in her possession? Was it the idea of, hey, we can track, let's say, credit cards to where they were purchased?

Starting point is 00:08:40 and where they were used. I mean, what do you think they have against her right now? First of all, she has very competent defense counsel. She's represented by Jeffrey Rubinstein. I believe his office is in Beverly Hills. And I've never met Mr. Rubinstein, but he certainly doesn't work for free. And by the way, I tell private attorneys this all the time.

Starting point is 00:09:02 You're representing any client charged with what we call a paper crime, meaning involving high finance, a lot of money, prosecutors can bring a civil forfeiture action and essentially disgorge you of your attorney's fees that you are paid if they can show that they came from an ill-gotten source. So if that money was taken by her and she used that money to pay her attorney, her attorney could end up working for free. Now, having said that, if I were defending her, again, the first line of attack would be the residential burglary. in order to convict not to hold her to answer to stand trial because that's a probable cause standard. They have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she had the intent to either commit a felony or to steal before entering the home.

Starting point is 00:09:53 Right. So, right? So in other words, if she just went to the house, hung out and then while she's there, she's like, oh, this looks nice and takes it, that wouldn't be burglary? As an afterthought, no, it is not. Assuming they can prove that you had that intent before you entered and you went there under the guys of just wanting to hook up, her friend, lonely hearts, that kind of thing, well, then that might be enough circumstantial evidence to get her. But if it's a mere afterthought that she got there, they were having a good time,

Starting point is 00:10:27 and then she starts looking around and she sees a really cool bracelet laying on a nightstand or a piece of, a jewelry or even a lot of cash and then takes it doesn't mean she's innocent. It just means it's not burglary. So, Philip, again, what do you think would be the evidence? How would they prove it? Would it be there's a strength in numbers if you're talking about multiple alleged victims, multiple instances. Is that how you get to intent? Is that how you get to what maybe she was allegedly up to? Because again, it's kind of a, it's such an interesting case on so many different levels, but you think about the overlap of the charges, the overlap of the instances, and how you prove that intent factor.

Starting point is 00:11:08 Well, it depends on the charge. So, for example, if it's, let's say, unlawful access card use, meaning illegal use of credit cards, if she's using an alien, let's say, at the time of purchase, she's lying about who she is, then that's obviously circumstantial of an intent to defraud or to deceive. That's like unauthorized use of personal identifying information. Correct. We call that a 484E out here. And it's a very common crime.

Starting point is 00:11:37 When you get a hold of either a mislaid or a stolen credit card, you try to pass it off as yours, make a purchase, but then you sign a bogus name on it or you give some false circumstances as to how you got the card. That shows an intent to deceive and an intent to defraud. Now, as to burglary, certainly when you have sort of a group of victims who are coming in that have absolutely no nexus to one another saying that this she devil has done this to me as well. She gets into my house under the guise of wanting to go out on a date, wanting to hook up. But in fact, she's rummaging through drawers when I run to the kitchen to pour her a drink.

Starting point is 00:12:22 or if I run to the men's room, she's opening up closets or going through my drawer, doing whatever, then that is certainly circumstantial evidence of an intent to steal. But what else does it prove? I think there's an argument to be made that circumstantially she had that intent before entry. You have too many people gang up on her who have fallen prey to her to say, know that this was an after acquired intent. What did you make of her statement, her alleged statement she made to the Daily Mail, that she's being, you know, it seemed that she was saying that she was being falsely accused,

Starting point is 00:12:56 falsely targeted because she got on someone's wrong side. Is that a defense? And then she hung up, apparently, when asked more about it, which, I mean, you know, that's her right to do. But I don't know, I'm assuming that might come into evidence, maybe, but also does it give you a kind of an idea about a defense there? Depends on how credible she comes off. If she takes the stand and says, look, I admit, maybe I took advantage of people. I didn't like them after the first date. It didn't work out, but nonetheless, they showered and plied me with extravagant gifts. They whined and dined me.

Starting point is 00:13:35 They're just sore losers that I wasn't interested, that I didn't want a second date. And I think there's an argument to be made that that's true. I mean, how many people hook up on these dating websites? The whole purpose is to date. It doesn't work out. So you move on to the next one and hopefully you find your soulmate. Now, after a while, it's going to start to build and build and build, like building blocks of guilt because you're going to have too many people saying that after or on the first stage,

Starting point is 00:14:07 she entered my home and ripped me off. So I don't think that that's necessarily a disgruntled sore loser or somebody who is regretting going on that first state. It sounds like somebody who is truly a victim of crime. I think it'll be tough to get a fair and impartial jury in a case like this as a defense attorney because not that everybody would know about the case, but what she's accused of, how she appears, how she presents herself. I wonder if that could be tough. You know, optics and also, you know, these accusations, they can be tough. They can be tough to find a fair and impartial jury, right? Well, all that really matters during jury selection is that you can get from the

Starting point is 00:14:48 the veneer panel that nobody has formed a final opinion. If nobody, despite what they may have read about the case or heard about the case, as long as they have not reached a final judgment or conclusion about her, I think you can find 12 jurors who can be fair and impartial, that even though we are so enmeshed in the true crime world every day, there are plenty of people out there just living their lives who have no idea who the heck she is. And frankly, let's be honest, particularly here on the west side of L.A. and in the San Fernando Valley, where she's going to be tried. We have a large Jewish and Israeli community who might actually be sympathetic to her.

Starting point is 00:15:29 I'm not going to necessarily call them woke or inclined to let people go merely because they are from Israel. But I think that there is going to be some common ground, if you will, and they might cut her some slack and never think that one of their own could ever do this. What about, I imagine jurors have to be asked, did you see her coverfold or did you ever watch her online? I mean, if that's really the service she was a part of, they are asked about that, right? Of course. And then the court can excuse them for cause because if you can tell jury of what your process, that they have formed the final opinion, you know, that she is a vixen, a villainous, a thief, a connive, a grifter, then, And because they have formed that final opinion based on media accounts, the judge is going to kick them for cause.

Starting point is 00:16:22 Okay. By the way, do you think this is going to actually move forward towards a trial? I know you're not part of the case. You don't know all the evidence. But is this one of those situations where if you are dealing with more black and white evidence, if you can show the, you know, again, I don't know all that they have, but if it's easy to show a relatively easy to prove unauthorized use of personal identifying information or you can, you know, if there's surveillance footage or credit card receipts, what have you?

Starting point is 00:16:48 Is this a kind of case where you think a deal might be worked out and what would a deal look like? If I were representing her and I have actually verified that she is not a U.S. citizen, let alone have a green card or lawful status in the United States, I would try to work out a deal where she serves 364 days or less to a nonviolent and to a non-agravated felony under federal law. Because what that would do is, yes, she would be convicted and she would have a felony. She would be ordered to pay restitution, but it does not automatically render her deportable. So she would still have a right to a hearing in the immigration courts to preserve her right to remain in the country. That's how I would try to bash him a deal. Now, on the other hand, if she doesn't want to do any time and doesn't care about her immigration status,

Starting point is 00:17:41 then you can either just bleed her out and maybe get her straight probation to the first. burglary and off she goes or you do the trial. But I can tell you now, given where she's going for her trial, if she's convicted, she's going to prison. Two points about that. Why do you say that? I don't know that trial. And number two, I don't know that court. And two, you said federal charge, aren't these state charges? These are state charges. But when you are convicted of certain state crimes, it triggers federal immigration law. Okay, gotcha, got you, got you, got you. Okay. And federal immigration law defines certain types of offenses that render you deportable. For example, certain types of aggravated residential burglary where the homeowner is actually

Starting point is 00:18:27 home at the time, we call it a hot berg. If the victim is actually present during the time of the burglary, it is an inherently dangerous felony. Of course. Because there is a assumption you could use violence to try to thwart the burglar or that the burglar, or that the burglar, might try to use violence against the victim. So you're rendered deportable. Why is that court, you said she, if she goes to trial in that court, she's looking at prison time. Why do you say that?

Starting point is 00:18:58 Well, I can tell you that just based on my experience and going to trial in the San Fernando Valley when you don't take a deal and your exposure is almost 11 years, you're not going to get straight probation when you have this many victims. I mean, this type of, ruse. And this type of advantage that the defendant has taken over multiple victims who were

Starting point is 00:19:23 vulnerable, who fell easy prey to somebody who was this cunning and manipulative, has to be punished. Otherwise, you will never deter this type of behavior. And at that point, her immigration concerns are going to be the least of her problem. She will be going to the big house. Philip DuBay, love having yawn. You break it down so easily for us to understand, especially California law and what happens out in Los Angeles. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Drew goes online, be well. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar.

Starting point is 00:19:54 Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can also check us out on NBC's Peacock as well. If you want to follow me, X Instagram, my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday through Friday, 11 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you next time, everybody. You know, You're going to be. You know,

Starting point is 00:20:19 Thank you.

Law&Crime Sidebar - Playboy Model's Secret Schemes Land Her Behind Bars: Cops

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