Twin influencers Leah Marie Talabi and Sarah Talibi, both based in Los Angeles with over a million followers each on social media, are facing serious allegations after a small family-owned restaurant accused them of walking away with $450 worth of free food and never delivering on their promised content.
The ordeal began when Leah reached out to Men and Beasts, a small LA restaurant, proposing a collaboration where she would receive a complimentary meal in exchange for social media posts on Instagram and TikTok. What started as a dinner for two quickly snowballed.
First, Leah mentioned a third person would be joining.
Then she claimed a group of five to six people would attend, citing that several large LA food accounts and publications would be coming along to provide high-quality photo and video coverage of the restaurant.
The dinner appeared to go smoothly. The group received approximately $450 worth of food and drinks, supported by a receipt provided by the restaurant. A few Instagram stories were posted showing the group dining out.
Then weeks passed without any of the promised reels, posts, or coverage from any of the accounts Leah had mentioned. When the restaurant began reaching out for follow-up, Leah went silent.
Men and Beasts then contacted the food accounts Leah had listed as dining companions, and at least one confirmed they had no connection to Leah whatsoever and had never met her.
The story gained traction after a content creator named daadisnacks posted a video exposing the situation, prompting the sisters to make their Instagram accounts private. The fallout did not stop there.
Other small business owners began coming forward with similar stories. Makeup artist merilynmua shared her own experience, claiming Leah had promised posts across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube in exchange for a free collaboration, only to ghost her afterward.
“The whole collaboration was supposed to include posts on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube,” Merilyn said. “And do you know what I actually got? One single Instagram story. That’s it. And my name was so small that you could barely see it.”
The sisters then attempted to have daadisnack’s video removed with a cease and desist letter sent from a person identified as Ryan Solder of the Solder Law Group. The problem: Ryan Solder does not appear in the California State Bar’s database of licensed attorneys, and Solder Law Group could not be verified as a legitimate firm. The address listed for the firm turned out to be a corporate building lobby, and the building itself confirmed that no such tenant had ever operated there.
The restaurant at the center of this situation was founded by an immigrant woman from China and is now reportedly out $450, along with the time and effort that went into serving a group that allegedly had no intention of honoring their end of the deal.
