‘Bling Empire: New York’ castmembers burglarized in Paris

By Oliver Briscoe, CNN

Three castmembers from the Netflix show “Bling Empire: New York” were burglarized last week in Paris.

The burglary happened on Mar. 2 in an apartment in Paris’ fashionable 8th arrondissement, near the Champs Elysées, rented by Lynn Ban, her husband Jett Kain and fellow castmember Blake Abbie, who are visiting for Fashion Week, according to their spokesperson, Gia Kuan.

Three minors and one adult were detained in the case, the Parisian persecutor’s office confirmed to CNN.

According to Kuan, the adult was suspected of handling the stolen goods and had been recently released from prison. He has since been released without charge but the investigation into the minors is ongoing, the prosecutor’s office confirmed.

During the robbery, the apartment safe containing documents was taken, as well as passports, an iPad. A Tom Ford jacket and other luxury clothes were also stolen, Kuan said, most which were recovered in under 24 hours by Paris police.

Just prior to the theft, Kain had been returning to the apartment from a shopping trip to meet his wife and accompany her to a fitting. After dropping his bags by the door, they left together, his spokesperson told CNN.

The three teenagers allegedly then slipped into the building behind them, broke the lock of the apartment and forced the door. The alleged burglars later filmed themselves with Kain’s shopping, wearing his new jacket and boasted about having taken the safe from the closet, according to Kuan.

Finding the door forced in and the apartment ransacked, the couple immediately called the police, she said.

The suspects were traced using the tablet’s geolocation and caught just hours later, with one still wearing the stolen jacket.

“As foreigners in France, especially during Fashion Week one would think this would have been a total loss but the French police really went above and beyond the call of duty in this case and we are forever grateful of this,” Ban said in a statement to CNN.

“I am grateful to the French police for their swift action which led to the capture of the suspects and recovery of documents,” Kain added.

“I was pretty rattled after the break in. When Lynn called me to tell me, I was on my way to an appointment with a brand and I dropped my things and ran back. To be in and out of police stations, in French, and then try to balance the fact that I’m in Paris for work was incredibly destabilizing,” Abbie told CNN.

A spinoff of Netflix’s highly successful 2021 docuseries “Bling Empire,” which follows a group of wealthy and attractive Asian Americans in Los Angeles, “Bling Empire: New York” is centered on the lives of a group of New York City-based Asian American socialites.

The new series premiered in January 2023.

The-CNN-Wire
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