Stephen Cloobeck, a wealthy real estate developer who briefly ran for governor of California last year, was arrested on Tuesday in West Hollywood, Calif., and charged with intimidating victims in a case against his fiancée, a former Penthouse model accused of wooing rich men online and stealing from them.
Mr. Cloobeck, 64, was arrested and charged with attempting to prevent or dissuade a victim from testifying, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. A warrant had been issued for Mr. Cloobeck’s arrest, and he surrendered at the West Hollywood station on Tuesday morning.
The charge could potentially be a felony, and is related to a criminal case against Mr. Cloobeck’s fiancée, Adva Lavie, a social media influencer and model who is known online as Mia Ventura. She has been charged with multiple felonies and is accused of using dating apps to meet older, wealthy men and then burglarizing their homes, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.
According to the complaint against Mr. Cloobeck that was released on Wednesday, he is being charged with three felony counts for attempting to dissuade — “by force or threat,” according to the complaint — three of Ms. Lavie’s victims from testifying against her. He is charged with an additional misdemeanor for allegedly making “annoying telephone calls” to an additional person connected to Ms. Lavie’s case.
Mr. Cloobeck was booked at 11:19 a.m. on Tuesday and released in the early afternoon after posting a $300,000 bond, according to jail records. His lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment, and Mr. Cloobeck did not respond to a text message.
Mr. Cloobeck, the founder of the timeshare company Diamond Resorts International, had put up millions of his own money to run for governor of California last year before withdrawing from the race in November. Upon his exit, he endorsed Eric Swalwell, the former congressman who had become a Democratic front-runner before he was accused of sexual abuse and had to abandon his campaign in April.
In ending his own campaign, Mr. Cloobeck said in November, “If Eric weren’t in this race, I’d still be in it. But I am leaving this race because the most qualified person in the state is now running for governor.”
Mr. Cloobeck described an unusually close relationship with Mr. Swalwell in an interview this year with Politico. He likened Mr. Swalwell to a “little brother,” and said the former congressman had stayed at his Malibu home several times in the prior eight years.
After the sex abuse allegations emerged, Mr. Swalwell stayed with Mr. Cloobeck again, according to NBC Los Angeles. But the real estate magnate told the station that he had cut ties with the former congressman days later.
Tim Arango is a correspondent covering national news. He is based in Los Angeles.
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