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‘Thanks liberals!’ A-list celebs not feeling so inclusive with rowdy squatters ruining their ritzy hood: Report

March 29, 2024 | | Print Article

A wealthy California neighborhood reportedly home to stars like Jennifer Lopez and LeBron James was taken over by squatters.

But they weren’t the usual squatters. They were, as described by the New York Post, “opportunistic grifters, exploiting a neglected mansion to masquerade as affluent socialites and host extravagant soirees.”

At issue was a mansion that was abandoned by its fugitive owner, Lebanese American orthopedic surgeon Munir Uwaydah, after he was indicted for insurance fraud. After he fled the country, an aspiring actor named Morgan Gargiulo created a fake lease to take control of the mansion.

Gargiulo then began posting wild parties at the mansion, which according to reports lies just blocks away from James’ mansion.

“His nights were a blur of relentless revelry, with parties raging five evenings a week, each demanding hefty admission fees ranging from $500 to $1,500,” the Post notes. “The ambiance was carefully curated, complete with rave lights, Warhol-esque prints and a disco ball, creating an illusion of opulence.”

“It was the biggest mansion I had ever been to,” a 22-year-old who attended one of these parties told New York magazine’s Curbed, which originally broke the story earlier this month.

Besides inviting his fiancée and “a rotating cast of friends” to live at the mansion, which he called the “Beverly Hills Lodge,” the actor also started renting out bedrooms for as much as $300 per evening.

“Boasting an outdoor swimming pool, a fitness centre, a garden and a shared lounge, Beverly Hills Lodge is situated in the Beverly Hills district of Los Angeles, only 8.2 km from Petersen Automotive Museum,” one room ad reportedly ad.

“Languages spoken at the 24-hour front desk include English, Spanish, Italian and Korean,” the strange ad continued.

Neighbors were furious and expressed as much in text chats between themselves.

“Nearly every night, neighbors who could see into the backyard of 1316 sent videos of the packed parties happening there, colored rave lights blinking from the rooms,” Curbed notes. “The cars kept arriving, a mix of beat-up sedans, Porsches, and G-Wagons.”

“‘Cut off their water,’ one person suggested. ‘They’re possibly Mafia so wouldn’t want to try that,’ another replied. ‘They are not Mafia,’ someone else said. ‘Who said that? Cut the water.’ One of the neighbors got in touch with LeBron James’s house manager. They were told James was very concerned,” Curbed notes.

Neighbor Rick Rankin was one of the folks who raised concerns after noticing all the new arrivals during a jog.

“There were people congregating,” he told Curbed. “I wasn’t born yesterday. They’re jittery; their eyes are spinning. They were clearly on something.”

At one point, an unnamed “producer” confronted Gargiulo with the police.

“Hi, I’m your new neighbor,” Gargiulo responded.

“You’re not my new neighbor. Go f–k yourself,” the producer reportedly replied.

The cops then asked to see his lease, so he brought it for them to inspect.

“The paper had no address, no amount, no term of agreement, but it said ‘lessor’ and ‘lessee,'” according to Curbed. “Gargiulo also showed the police a Spectrum internet bill in his name registered to the house and his own driver’s license, which listed 1316 Beverly Grove Place as his official residence.”

The lease was clearly fake, but there evidently was nothing the police could do. All that began to change in January when eviction proceedings were finally initiated against Gargiulo and his friends.

Perhaps intimidated by the legal threat, Gargiulo then finally bent the knee and agreed to leave the mansion.

Looking back, he remains convinced he did nothing wrong.

“I don’t feel I have done anything bad,” he told Curbed. “I actually feel I brought to Los Angeles some wonderful, wonderful moments of joy and music, and I’ve seen people very happy. I’ve seen people fall in love.”

Meanwhile, he remains angry at the media for allegedly smearing him.

“The parties were very refined. I’ve seen, like, you know, the Daily Mail and many other news outlets talking about me as a sophisticated criminal, as a pirate and all these things, when at the end of the day, I don’t think it is even comparable, what I have done, to people who are involved in $150 million scams and murder,” he said, referencing Uwaydah.

Vivek Saxena
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