Couple crashes into notoriety

WASHINGTON - Before Tareq and Michaele Salahi catapulted to international notoriety as possible White House gate-crashers last week, the Virginia socialites had their pictures taken with President Obama during his inauguration, Prince Charles at a polo match, and Oprah Winfrey at another event. They had Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy speak at their elaborate wedding, which more than 1,800 guests attended.

Friends describe the 40-something pair as "fun-loving" and unabashed about pursuing the spotlight and playing the debonair couple who know and are known by all the right people.

But by Friday, Secret Service agents were seen trying to track down the pair to learn how they managed to get into Obama's first state dinner; interviews and court records also show the couple have a far less glamorous side. These documents and statements include dozens of civil suits alleging nonpayment for services, a long-running (and very public) feud with Tareq Salahi's parents about ownership and control of their now-idle 108-acre winery, and claims the couple made about accomplishments that can't be verified.

Casey Margenau, a real estate agent and longtime friend of Tareq Salahi's, said he had talked with the couple on Thursday. He said the investigation was "hard on them," because the couple believed they "really were invited guests."

"There's a video out there of Tareq opening a champagne bottle with a saber," Margenau said. "That's him. That's his personality. . . . They've always loved living large, always loved living in the spotlight. They have strong personalities and are very outgoing. Some people like that and some people really dislike it, so much that, well, sometimes people hate you when you're like that."

The circumstances of Tuesday's state dinner at the White House remain unclear.

On Wednesday, hours before the White House denied that the Salahis were legitimate guests, the Post asked the couple via Facebook how they happened to attend the dinner. Tareq Salahi, captain of the America's Cup Polo team, responded: "India is the challenger in the America's Polo Cup World Championships June 11/12 2010, and they are very excited in this first ever cultural connection being hosted on the DC National Mall since Polo is one of the primary sports in India."

When pressed about why they did not appear on the official list, he added: "It was last-minute attending."

Reached on his cell phone, their attorney Paul W. Gardner said, "OK. No. No. No," and hung up.

CNN said it had canceled the couple's appearance tomorrow on Larry King Live after producers were told that the Salahis were postponing.

Tareq Salahi's stake to local fame and wealth stems from the family winery, Oasis, in Fauquier County. It is one of Virginia's oldest, founded in 1977 by Dirgham and Corinne Salahi. It was known for its sparkling blended wines, and it hosted large social events.

But it had fallen into debt in recent years. It became the subject of ugly local complaints about the disruption that the winery's events caused on narrow back roads. And it devolved into a bitter family squabble pitting parents against son.

The family put it up for sale in 2007, and a year ago it was still on the market for $4.7 million. In February 2009, according to court records, the winery filed for bankruptcy. In a civil suit in Fauquier County Circuit Court last year, Dirgham and Corinne Salahi alleged that Tareq Salahi had interfered with the winery's sale.

The bankruptcy papers describe the repossession last year of a 2004 Aston Martin valued at $150,000 and a Carver 350 Mariner boat valued at $90,000. The document lists $334,000 in assets and $965,000 in liabilities.

Both sides later said the lawsuit was dormant, and Tareq Salahi said it would be settled without monetary payments. The dispute grew so unpleasant that Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who had lived there, left.

The couple were not at their latest listed address in Front Royal Friday or yesterday. The two-story house, assessed at nearly $700,000, lies on a gravel road, near the top of a mountain overlooking I-66. Parked in the driveway was a white stretch limo, with a vanity tag reading "VAWINE3." Small stickers on both passenger doors advertise "America's Polo Cup."

Yesterday, a dog inside the house barked loudly. A note taped to the front door read: "Hi Dana, Thanks for watching the dog. See you after weekend."

The Salahis met in 1999 at a Christmas party in Margenau's home.

"Tareq was very aggressive about trying to get engaged," Rachel Harshman, who owns a horse farm near Middleburg, Va., and was formerly friends with Michaele Salahi, said Friday.

The Salahis eventually staged a self-described "wedding of the century," on Oct. 5, 2002, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in downtown Washington.

The couple was featured in DC Style magazine a few years ago. Tareq and Michaele Salahi are posed at mid-distance in a stylish, high-ceiling bar. He's wearing black slacks with a white tuxedo top, hands in pockets. She is next to him in a tight, short dress, turned away, both hands pressed against a wall, head tilted forward, lips pursed into a pout, left leg arched up on tiptoe.

It's a glamorous image.

But Harshman, who says the couple owe her tens of thousands of dollars, said she had noted something odd when she had met Michaele Salahi in the 1990s. At the time, she said, Michaele Salahi was working jobs in retail and living with her parents in a simple condominium in Oakton, Va. The family was not wealthy, Harshman says.

One night out with friends, Harshman said, she was surprised when Michaele Salahi casually mentioned that she was a model. "I said, 'You never mentioned this to me before.' " Later, Harshman said, "it grew into 'supermodel.' I ignored it half the time."

Last year, Michaele Salahi, now 44, told a reporter that she had been a Washington Redskins cheerleader, and she has been photographed at several alumni events. But the cheerleaders' director of marketing, Melanie Coburn, wrote in an e-mail: "We have no record of her being a member of the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders."

Nor could the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders Alumni Association find any record of her, said Terri Crane-Lamb, president of the association.

One former cheerleader, Konnie McKee, said Michaele Salahi came to alumni events, but no one remembered her being on the squad. McKee and Crane-Lamb noticed Michaele Salahi attending WRCAA events. "I remember Terri and I talking: 'What's the deal? Does anyone remember her?' "

Tareq Salahi, 40, a polo player and wine expert, was also running up a sizable number of detractors.

He got involved in the Courage Cup, a polo match launched in 2004 by Greg Ball, a former Air Force officer. Salahi was later one of the board members who sided with Ball in a bitter feud (involving e-mails blasted to hundreds of area polo fans) over who controlled the event - Ball or the two women he asked to run it in 2006 while he pursued a seat in the New York legislature.

A Post investigation later found that as much as $10,000 in ticket sales to the Poolesville, Md., match - though widely advertised as benefiting polo training for underprivileged children - ended up in a political action campaign started by Ball, and eventually into his campaign treasury.

Salahi then launched America's Polo Cup in 2007.

He and the event were sued for $300,000 by Market Salamander, a caterer in Middleburg, in 2008, alleging nonpayment of services for a Polo Cup event.