'RHONY' Alum Aviva Drescher's Husband Sued For Alleged 'Extortion' After Failing To Secure $149 Million In Funding For Weed Business
Former Real Housewives of New York star Aviva Drescher's husband Reid Drescher allegedly used his family's fame to scam a marijuana grower into an investment deal that reportedly caused the entire business venture to go "up in smoke" when his private-equity fund failed to land a profit, according to recently filed court documents.
Gateway Privileged Fund LLC, which allegedly funded the investment, is reportedly controlled by Drescher. He claimed to have access to "gobs of cash" to invest in Los Angeles-based marijuana grower P&S Ventures LLC, according to the lawsuit filed on Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The suit reads, “Drescher bragged that he was a cousin of Fran Drescher, who played The Nanny in the television series of that name, and that his wife, Aviva Drescher, was on Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York, claiming to have many celebrity contacts as a result."
Aviva hadn't been part of the reality TV show since 2014, and Dran hadn't acted since her TV Land sitcom Happily Divorced was canceled back in 2013.
P&S claim to have agreed to accept a $5.4 million investment from Drescher’s fund in exchange for stock, believing his rocky business history and his “numerous materially false representations."
Drescher's fund allegedly raised $1 million of the $120 million as of 2019 and, according to the plaintiffs, Gateway only kicked $1.35 million into P&S.
They would go on to call the money shortfall “highly destructive” to their business and claim it drove them into a “costly and damaging receivership,” according to the suit.
Drescher's attorney, Richard Roth, released a statement following news of the lawsuit, saying: “The entity that is being sued will be filing some very serious counterclaims," referring to Gateway Privileged Fund LLC. “We’re going to file a massive counterclaim here. We’re going to hold the plaintiffs responsible for their contractual obligations.”
Aviva was only on RHONY for two years before getting cut from the show. The Danish photographer was reportedly unenthusiastic about returning to the show and being around her co-stars.
She was known to be highly contentious with several of the women on the show. Her most iconic moment in the show's history was when she famously threw her prosthetic leg at fellow housewife Heather Thomson during the show's season finale.