Tareq Salahi had grand visions for reality stardom. At a recent dinner, before becoming infamous as half of the White House Party Crashers, Salahi told Yeas & Nays he envisioned the cast of the “Real Housewives of D.C.,” including his former model wife, Michaele, stomping grapes with their feet at their Virginia Oasis winery while being filmed by Bravo’s cameras.
But behind the facade of successful wine entrepreneurs and Washington polo socialites, the Salahis were hiding years of legal and financial sour grapes.
The winery business had created rifts in the Salahi family, pitting Tareq against his parents, Dirgham Salahi and Corinne Salahi, who founded the Hume, Va., vineyard in 1977.
They slapped each other with civil suits throughout 2006 and 2007, which were then voluntarily dismissed by the parties. Both the parents’ company, Oasis Vineyards Inc. (in which Tareq Salahi owns a 5 percent share), and Oasis Enterprise Inc. (owned entirely by Tareq Salahi), have filed for bankruptcy.
Both entities are valued at about $300,000. Oasis Vineyards, which operates the vineyard, is close to $2 million in debt, while Tareq’s baby, Oasis Enterprise, owes about $1 million, including a $65 parking ticket to Montgomery County. On top of that, Oasis Enterprise’s revenue dropped from $1.7 million in 2007 to $35,000 in 2008.
Adam Levitin, an associate law professor at Georgetown University and a writer for cred
itslips.org, a blog that discusses credit and bankruptcy issues, told Yeas & Nays that the couple’s recent reality-star-seeking antics don’t seem surprising when looking at court filings and analyzing their business habits.
“You basically get the sense that they’re bounders, that was the sense that I got from this — that this company was happy to stiff people left and right,” Levitin said, referring to Tareq Salahi’s business practices.
In order to alleviate some of Tareq Salahi’s debt, a luxury vehicle and a boat — both filed as business expenses through Oasis Enterprise Inc. — were repossessed.
“I thought the stuff that shocked me the most were the luxury vehicles that I don’t typically think are part of a winery operation,” Levitin said, citing the bankruptcy documents. “The $150,000 Aston Martin … the Carver boat, both of which have been repossessed,” Levitin said.
But it’s also typical for there to exist a thin line between business and personal expenses when it comes to small businesses.
“When the business gets into financial trouble often there is a snowball,” Levitin said.
Another thing that struck him was that the land the winery was situated on was not listed as an asset in either one of the bankruptcy cases.
“Whoever owns the land is not in bankruptcy,” he said.
Now with mounting legal troubles regarding the great White House gate crash of 2009, the Salahis have more battles to add to their pending bankruptcy case.
Surprised that their financial mess is somewhat like their personal mess?
“It doesn’t reflect well on them at all,” Levitin said. “It’s not a credit to them.”
And it might get worse. Tareq and Michaele Salahi, along with the director of the Secret Service, have been called to testify before Congress on Thursday.
