MW A mystery man tried to buy Playboy's high-end lingerie business. It turned out to all be a scam.

By Lukas I. Alpert

Prosecutors say Kevin Juin used money he raised to buy the company Honey Birdette to purchase luxury watches, jewelry, private-club memberships and OnlyFans subscriptions

Playboy immediately sensed something was off about a mystery man who approached them to buy a stake in their lingerie company, Honey Birdette.

In early 2025, executives at Playboy received a call out of the blue from a mysterious buyer who said he had put together millions of dollars to buy a large stake in a high-end lingerie company they owned.

The timing was good: Playboy $(PLBY)$ had been looking for a partner to invest in Honey Birdette, the Australian lingerie business it had bought for $333 million in cash and stock in 2021.

But it turned out to be too good to be true: A quick bit of due diligence revealed that the buyer wasn't all that he promised.

"It seemed a bit shady from the start," said a person familiar with the negotiations. "None of what he told us checked out."

The man, identified in court documents as 35-year-old Kevin Juin, dressed flashily and seemed to be living a life that he didn't appear to have the means to support, the person said.

There was a simple explanation, prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney's office say: Juin had used the proposed deal with Playboy as a way to talk at least one investor into giving him millions, which he used to support a jet-setting lifestyle.

"Kevin Juin solicited more than $2 million in purported loans to invest in a lingerie company, while funneling the money to personal accounts to fund a luxurious lifestyle," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. "Business dealings must be handled with integrity in the finance capital of the world."

Juin was arraigned late Thursday and released on a $2 million bond. A message left with his attorney seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.

Prosecutors say in early 2025, Juin approached a classmate he knew from business school asking for a series of short-term bridge loans to help him finalize the acquisition of a stake in Honey Birdette. In all, Juin borrowed $2 million from his former classmate, according to court documents. In return, Juin offered his classmate the option of converting parts of the loan into shares of the lingerie business.

Prosecutors say that instead of using the money to further a deal with Playboy, Juin spent it on rent, luxury watches and jewelry, designer clothing, international travel, OnlyFans subscriptions, restaurant bills, private members' clubs, and payments to a cleaning lady.

Juin allegedly kept insisting that the deal would close imminently, but the classmate eventually asked for his money back. Prosecutors say at this point, Juin only had a few thousand dollars left in his bank account and that he has failed to repay any of the money.

Prosecutors noted that Juin had been named in several civil suits alleging that he similarly borrowed money to finance deals which never closed, and that he never paid the money back. In at least two cases, prosecutors said, they believe Juin used money borrowed from some people to pay back others he owed money to.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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May 29, 2026 18:09 ET (22:09 GMT)

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