Feds probe John Travolta pal’s lavish lifestyle
A Hollywood playboy who hobnobs with celebrities like John Travolta and Manny Pacquiao is in the crosshairs of the feds over millions allegedly used to fund his lavish lifestyle, including yacht parties with bikini-clad women, The Post has learned.
Assets tied to ex-con Victorino Noval, aka Victor Jesus Noval, are at the center of a civil forfeiture lawsuit filed this week by the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles over money allegedly stolen by his Middle Eastern investors. A criminal probe is also underway, sources added.
Noval, the son of an arms smuggler who helped the CIA’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro, served time in prison 20 years ago for a scheme to defraud the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Thursday’s filing claims a crew of since-axed Kuwaiti officials stole tens of millions of dollars from their government starting in 2010, and then used some of their ill-gotten gains to invest in a Beverly Hills land parcel that made headlines in 2018 for its staggering $1 billion price-tag, attracting Jeff Bezos among its interested buyers.
While some of the money was invested in the property, known as The Mountain, the US developers — a group the feds say included Noval — also used it to buy a Lamborghini, a yacht, a private jet, a Beverly Hills penthouse and Manny Pacquiao Prize Fighter belt and boots that cost $40,000, the feds said.
Kuwait’s ex-interior minister and a member of Kuwait’s royal family, Khaled Al-Sabah, last year sued Noval and others over $163 million he says he invested in The Mountain — only to see it spent on aircraft, boats, mansions and exotic dancers. Al-Sabah’s lawyer has denied that his client is part of a $5 billion theft known in Kuwait as the Military Aid Fund scandal.
“It’s almost funny,” an anti-corruption investigator in Kuwait told the Post of the case. “But this isn’t about an individual stealing from another individual. It’s about public servants stealing from the government. That’s treason.”
Sources say US investigators have been asking questions since last year about Noval’s wealth, which includes an Italian-style villa in Beverly Hills used to throw a party — co-hosted by actor Travolta — in honor of Italian producer Oscar Generale in 2018, the Hollywood Reporter reported last year.
The feds’ complaint targets Noval’s Summit Drive mansion, which Sotheby’s says comes equipped with 11 custom bathrooms, a wine cellar and a home theater.
The feds’ complaint targets Noval’s Summit Drive mansion, which Sotheby’s says comes equipped with 11 custom bathrooms, a wine cellar and a home theater.
The feds are seeking to claw back funds used to buy the Summit Drive mansion in November 2016 for $20.4 million. Other assets traced back to allegedly stolen Kuwaiti funds include a private jet acquired in 2016 for $627,000 by an associate of Noval; a yacht acquired that same year for $820,000; a Lamborghini purchased in 2017 for $324,900, again by an associate of Noval; and a Wilshire Blvd penthouse acquired in 2012 for $1.2 million.
The complaint also mentions $40,000 spent in 2015 for the purchase of a replica of a Manny Pacquiao Prize Fighter belt and boots. One year earlier, in 2014, Noval held an auction on his Beverly Hills estate to sell the bloodied shorts Pacquiao wore during a victorious fight with boxer Timothy Bradley, according to the Victorino Noval Foundation website, which claims singer Zendaya was in attendance.
Noval charged guests $1,000 a head to enter, gossip website TMZ reported at the time.
The Instagram account for Noval, born in Cuba in 1961, depicts a jetsetter lifestyle, including photos of fast cars, stars like Travolta, and, of course, women wearing skimpy bikinis on a yacht, by a pool and draped over the balcony of a posh mansion. The account appears to have been deleted after The Post’s story was published online Friday.
Ronald Richards, a lawyer for Noval, said his client had no way to knowing that the money received may have been stolen. “My client has no need nor interest in retaining any improperly distributed funds.”
Richards said he has no knowledge of a parallel criminal probe into the spending.
The Los Angeles US Attorney’s office declined to comment. Prosecutors involved in the on-going probe include Michael Sew Hoy of the asset forfeiture division, as well as Mack Jenkins of the public corruption unit and Joseph Axelrad of organized crime, sources said.
The Mountain, meanwhile, remains the largest undeveloped plot of land in Beverly Hills after years of passing through wealthy hands. Hughes bought it from TV personality Merv Griffin in 1997 for $8.5 million with an eye to building a 50,000-square-foot home, his wife at the time, Suzan Highes, told The Post. But the couple soon divorced and Hughes died from a drug and alcohol overdose in 200, passing the estate to his 8-year-old son through a trust.
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