A Los Angeles CEO has claimed himself as a victim of extortion after a concierge in his condo building caught him on security camera beating his four-month-old puppy.
Additionally, the CEO claimed that what he didn’t wasn’t illegal, though he’s currently under investigation by police for the incident.
On August 22. Jeffrey Previte, the CEO of EBI Consulting, was captured on camera at the Seychelle Condominiums building in Santa Monica, California hoisting his puppy, Beachy, outside of his residence.
Video of the incident shows Previte finding something on the ground near Beachy and then angrily seizing the animal by the right side of its head with his left fist. He yanks the dog off the ground, fist clenched around its skin, before slapping the dog while shaking it around.
Opening a door, he then yanks the animal some more as the door closes behind him. A minute later, Previte emerges from behind the door carrying Beachy with his right hand clenched around the dog’s throat. Repositioning his hand to carry the dog by its collar, he then slaps the dog again before briefly setting it down and carrying it off-camera.
In a public statement, Previte said his building’s concierge called him at 9 p.m. on August 22 and, “He attempted to extort money from me so that he wouldn’t report it to the building.”
“There’s nothing illegal about what I did,” Previte continued. “I said if you need to tell the building, tell the building. The building manager took it very seriously. I find it very unfortunate that we are even talking about this.”
Despite Previte’s claim of legality, on Thursday evening the Santa Monica Police Department wrote in a tweet that its Animal Services Unit is investigating the incident for a possible violation of Penal Code 597(a).
Penal Code 597(a) is an animal abuse law citing anyone who “maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures, or wounds a living animal.” Other subsections of the law mention the inflicting of “unnecessary cruelty”, “needless suffering” and abuse of any kind against animals.
Newsweek contacted EBI Consulting for comment. The company has deactivated its Twitter and Facebook pages and scrubbed any mention of Jeffrey Previte from its website.
In a statement, the Seychelle Condominiums wrote, “The apparent conduct of the unit owner was abhorrent and completely unacceptable. Building management stands behind our employee and we took swift action, including contacting animal control and directing the resident to cease all contact with our employee. We continue to evaluate other measures that can be taken with our counsel.”