Samantha Barbash was the leader of several strip club workers who drugged wealthy Wall Street clients and swindled them off of thousands of dollars. Barbash and her team believed they would get away with the scheme as the clients would be too embarrassed or confused to report it.
Eventually, the law caught up with the strippers, whose story featured in Jessica Pressler’s 2015 article The Hustler at Scores. Pressler’s report formed the basis of the film Hustlers, starring Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez.
Barbash didn’t enjoy her portrayal in the film, telling Vanity Fair: “I wasn’t really that impressed. I am nothing like that in person.”
Samantha Barbash runs a spa and participates in online modeling
Samantha Barbash runs the Perfect Silhouette MediSpa in New York City. She founded the spa alongside a business partner named Alexis. The business’ about page reads:
“As self-described ‘Beauty Junkies’, Alexis & Samantha spent years in search of the best of all things beauty including the top Estheticians, Dermatologists, Plastic Surgeons worldwide. When both combined their ideas together they knew it would be dynamite.”
The services offered by Perfect Silhouette MediSpa include cellulite reduction and skin tightening. Barbash’s Instagram page shows that she does online modeling. Samantha’s book, Underscore: Breaking my silence, which tells her side of the story, is on sale on various platforms.
Barbash’s business-savvy mind has given her economic prosperity years after authorities dismantled her fraudulent scheme. In her book, Barbash details the lavish lives she and her girls enjoyed at the expense of rich men, including musicians and Fortune 500 CEOs.
According to Page Six, the book’s manuscript reads: “My clients were mostly VIP clients at Scores and Hustler. My job was to provide the fun parts, such as the girls and setting the vibe. I would arrange for the hottest girls to come to parties.”
Barbash writes that a Fortune 500 CEO she met at Hustler spent $100,000 to send Samantha on an all-expense-paid trip to Aruba after Samantha’s mother died. Another client spent $140,000 on purses at a Louis Vuitton store in New Jersey. “I’m not going to turn down a shopping spree,” Samantha said.
It’s unclear if Samantha can afford the kind of life she lived back then, but she seems to be doing well.
Barbash lost her fiance in 2021, months before their wedding
Samantha Barbash was engaged and awaiting her wedding ceremony when her fiance passed away in June 2021. According to Samantha’s Instagram page, the man’s name was Gaby.
“The love that this man had for me and my family was crazy, an amazing father and all around good guy everyone used to tell him he was the lucky one but in reality I was,” Samantha wrote on Instagram on 23rd June 2021 alongside a short video of her and Gaby.
“God took you way too soon. Now I have to try to pick up all the pieces to my life without you. I never would have thought months before our wedding you would be taken from me. Make sure you save my space next to you.”
On 24th October 2022, Samantha posted an Instagram tribute to Gaby alongside a photo of herself on a beach with Gaby’s name and a love symbol written on the sand:
“Never stop remembering. Laugh out loud, smile big, cry – whatever is gonna keep you strong. Nobody can break you… you are unbreakable.”
Samantha lost her $40 million suit against Jennifer Lopez
Samantha Barbash told Vanity Fair that Hustlers’ production team offered her a small amount for her film rights. “At the end of the day, I have bags that are worth more than what they wanted to pay me,” Barbash said. Therefore, Barbash refused to participate in the movie’s production.
Barbash wasn’t ‘really that impressed’ with Hustlers, but she praised Lopez’s performance. However, she opined that rapper Cardi B would’ve done a better job given her experience as a stripper. Samantha said:
“Even though she is not an actress, she was in the strip club world and she gets it. She would have maybe played a better me. Not taking away from Jennifer. But just because Cardi was in the business.”
In January 2020, Barbash sued the film’s production crew for $40 million for allegedly defaming her character and exploiting her image. The court found no merit in Samantha’s suit, dismissing the case as requested by the defendants.