Adva Lavie is set to be arraigned Monday on six felony charges after prosecutors said she used dating apps and social media to target wealthy people across Los Angeles County and pressure them for money and property. Police raided her apartment in May 2025 and said they found over $200,000 in cash, multiple gold coins and bars, a firearm and dozens of items they believe were stolen.
Detective Andrea March said investigators recovered at least 40 items of clothing Lavie was accused of stealing, along with 20 pairs of shoes. Police believe the clothing and shoes belonged to Elizabeth Craine, whose husband, Michael Craine, testified that $100,000 worth of clothes and handbags had gone missing from closets in his Beverly Hills mansion. Elizabeth Craine also said she recognized a zebra-print dress on Lavie’s Instagram account that had vanished from her wardrobe.
The charges are part of a case that prosecutors say stretches from 2023 through 2025 and centers on allegations that Lavie cultivated relationships with wealthy older men and younger women, then shook them down for money. In court documents, police alleged that she used dating apps to build those relationships and then turned to Instagram and text messages to push for payment.
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One of those alleged encounters involved Alireza Salehpour, who met Lavie at an art festival in Miami and later had dinner with her in Los Angeles. After dinner, she sent him an Apple Pay request for a $50 Uber fare and $100 for time spent together at the restaurant. When he refused, detectives said Lavie posted a photo of him on Instagram with the message “ugly, cheap, or broke” and texted that if he did not send the $50, she would not take it down. Salehpour then paid, according to March.
Another man, Scott Thurman, said he met Lavie on Tinder and later found fraudulent charges on his credit cards. He reported hundreds of dollars in charges for cosmetics and Southwest Airline tickets. When Thurman threatened to file a lawsuit, he told police Lavie accused him of sexual assault. In court, her attorney Louis Shapiro read a text she sent him: “All I asked was forgiveness from you.”
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Police also tied Lavie to a separate theft complaint from Eden Lynn Strelioff, who said she left her purse in the green room while appearing on the Las Vegas podcast “Access Las Vegas” on election night in 2025. Someone using Lavie’s alias, Mia Ventura, was also on the podcast that night, Strelioff said later, and she discovered two credit cards and $500 missing from her purse. Two charges totaling $900 were made later that month on one of the stolen cards at Farré Salon in Beverly Hills.
Lavie faces two counts of grand theft, two counts of burglary and two counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information. The arraignment Monday will put the allegations into court for the first time in a case that prosecutors say was built on dating apps, Instagram and repeated demands for money.
