Do celebrities get special treatment like: free clothes, free trips, and free spa days? Yes, Maybe, and in one Beverly Hills Spa, nope! Back in January a Beverly Hills spa owner, Maria Gabriela Hashemipour of Chez Gabriela Spa plead guilty to federal felony charges for cheating out her celebrity clientele in a credit card scheme that lasted for the past five years.
In a plea agreement made with Hashemipour, the Spa owner pulled in $1 million dollars in unauthorized charges on the credit cards of Hollywood A-listers like Penelope Cruz, Liv Tyler, Anne Hathaway, and Melanie Griffith. Named in a 41-count indictment filed in October, Hashemipour was charged with fraud and identity theft due to a hefty list of unauthorized charges she made. In November 2009, Liv Tyler’s managers told investigators that Hashemipour had made a total of $214,000 in fraudulent charges. The largest amount listed in the court documents.
How was Hashemipour caught? Back in mid-2009, jewelry designer Lorre Rodkin contacted Federal Agents to inform them that she had discovered an estimated $70,000 in unauthorized charges to her Visa card. The plea agreement that the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles filed states that Hashemipour will plead guilty to a singe felony charge which carries a maximum ten-year prison term. Also, the plea notes that Hashemipour may face deportation back to Mexico and gained “citizenship” in the United States through a fraudulent passport she had purchased.
Before being caught in her credit card scheme, Hashemipour went by the alias Maria Gabriella Perez and claimed to have been born in Barcelona, Spain. So far, out of the list of celebrities that have been taken advantage of by Hashemipour Loree Rodkin & Liv Tyler are the only two to have reported any fraudulent doings done against them. Isn’t it a shame that even celebrities can be victimized by the people who are supposed to care for and rejuvenate them.
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