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Brooke Burke theft case
Dancing with the Stars host Brooke Burke and her Baywatch star beau David Charvet are at the center of a civil lawsuit alleging they bought and received stolen property for their million-dollar Malibu estate, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents we’ve obtained, Burke and Charvet allegedly purchased roughly $70,000 worth of appliances for their Malibu home in 2007 – but in what emerged to be the deal of a lifetime — only paid about half of that.
The lawsuit claims the couple bought the merchandise from the store EuroConcepts at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, but instead of paying the store, they wrote out a check and in some cases paid cash, directly to the store’s showroom employee, Zalfa “Zee” Halaby.
Halaby is accused of selling merchandise belonging to EuroConcepts to Burke and Charvet and then keeping all the money. The loot included an outdoor stainless steel gas BBQ, fridge, freezer, microwave and a six burner range.
“She (Halaby) is now a defendant in this case. Now we have to find out how deeply Brooke Burke and David Charvet are ensnared in this,” attorney for the EuroConcepts, Sanford Passman, said.
In a taped deposition taken back in May, Burke denies any knowledge that she and Charvet bought and received stolen merchandise from Halaby.
In the video, Burke appears with no makeup, is fidgety through-out the interrogation and clearly agitated by the questions Passman is asking her.
When asked if she remembers writing or authorizing checks to be made out directly to Halaby for her purchases, Burke insists, “I don’t recall.” RadarOnline.com actually has copies of the checks made out to Halaby from her company “BLB Construction”. The checks are in the amounts of $6,000, $7,000 and $10,000 each.
Uh-oh.
In an alleged email from Halaby to Burke, Halaby writes with regard to various purchases, “Please make out check to my name: Zee Halaby So I could pay the Vedor [Vendor]”
According to the lawsuit, the vendor, EuroConcepts, never saw a cent of the amounts.
