Ex-Employee Charging Harassment Has Been Picketing the San Vicente Bungalows All Week
Usually, it’s what’s going on inside the San Vicente Bungalows — the deals, the spiels, the meals — that gets Rambling Reporter’s attention. But lately we couldn’t help noticing what’s going on outside the buzzy Hollywood clubhouse: For nearly a week, a lone 26-year-old woman, often dressed in extravagant evening wear, has been picketing the property, brandishing a sign claiming, “I Have Been Sexually Harassed @ San Vincente Bungalows.”
Her name is Anazia Akhalu, and it turns out the target of her accusation is none other than Dimitri Dimitrov, the legendary 74-year-old maître d’ who has been a decades-long Hollywood high life fixture, working for years at the Sunset Tower before decamping for the Bungalows in 2018 (both are owned by hotelier Jeff Klein). Akhalu, who worked the front desk at SVB for five weeks last winter, is accusing Dimitrov of, among other things, “squeez[ing] on my waist and arm” and eyeing her “up and down.”
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Both Dimitrov and Klein have declined comment, but a spokesman for the club says, “SVB investigates all claims of harassment and discrimination, whether meritorious or not. SVB does not tolerate such conduct and promotes an environment free from harassment and discrimination.”
Other sources at the Bungalows noted that the club has in the past expelled its own staff and members when charges of harassment were substantiated and questioned why Akhalu would wait several months before coming forward.
Akhalu, for her part, says she was afraid to complain because “Jeff Klein is a huge mogul — I felt so helpless,” adding that she has since filed a report with the police. “They haven’t done anything, either,” she says. “I feel silenced.”
This story appears in the May 29 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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