A Hollywood skin-care expert with celebrity clients including Jennifer Aniston and Nicki Minaj has been arrested for allegedly plotting to have a business rival killed.
Dawn DaLuise, 55, is accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill Gabriel Suarez after mistakenly concluding he was behind cyber-stalking rape threats against her, investigators say.
She remains in custody after being arrested last week, while a former friend of hers who investigators allege was the real person behind the online threats has been released on $US150,000 ($A166,700) bail.
DaLouise, a former model, runs Skin Refinery in West Hollywood. Among the "loyal clients" listed on her website were Hollywood actresses Alicia Silverstone, Christina Ricci and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Last July, she became aware of sexually-explicit flyers with her photo, as well as ads posted on online trading site Craiglist suggesting she was looking for men to act out a rape fantasy.
"The ads included the home address, phone number, and a photo of Dawn DaLuise," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Mike Parker.
DaLuise came to believe they were posted by esthetician Suarez, who had opened a shop a few doors down from Skin Refinery on Santa Monica Boulevard, offering facials and male body waxing.
Parker said DaLuise "began communications by text and phone calls with more than one person, in an effort to hire someone to kill the person she believed was trying to solicit rape against her".
Investigators arrested her on March 5 and she remains behind bars in lieu of $US1 million bail. She is scheduled to be arraigned next week.
"She is culpable for soliciting someone to kill the victim," Shaun Mathers of the Sheriff's Fraud & Cyber Crimes Bureau said.
"She believed it would be carried out."
Meanwhile investigators allege Edward Feinstein, a former friend who allegedly fell out with DaLuise, distributed the flyers, posted the Craiglist ads and sent out mass emails.
Feinstein was arrested this week and booked on suspicion of stalking. He was released on bail on Thursday, and is due in court again on May 14.
