A Department of Homeland Security deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism has been accused of picking up men on a sugar daddy website.
Julia Varvaro, 29, allegedly had a profile on Seeking.com, a site that is often used by young, attractive singles looking for older, wealthier partners to help fund their luxury lifestyles, according to the Daily Mail.
The profile, which was under the name “Alessia,” said its owner worked for a government agency and offered “seductive sophistication.”
It used the same photo as Varvaro’s Instagram account and described Alessia as “flirty, fun, and fond of sultry spaces,” as well as “drawn to a masculine man who’s attentive, protective, and quietly playful for mutually beneficial experiences.”
The profile was revealed by Varvaro’s ex-boyfriend, an older executive and divorced father identified by the Daily Mail as Robert B.
The two met on a different dating app, Hinge, and he spent $40,000 on her over the course of three months, including first-class trips to Aruba and Italy.
The relationship ended after Robert refused to spend even more on her, according to text messages he shared with the publication. He has since filed a complaint with DHS’s Office of the Inspector General exposing the alleged Seeking.com profile.
The complaint warned that Varvaro—whose social media profiles feature photos with President Donald Trump and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—was under financial stress, and alleged that her actions “pose a security risk.”
Reached for comment by the Daily Mail, Varvaro denied having a profile on Seeking.com and chalked up the allegations to a disgruntled ex.
“We were together in an exclusive relationship. We went on vacations. I don’t know what’s the problem with that,” Varvaro told the Daily Mail. “I did nothing wrong. This is just a mad ex-boyfriend putting crap together. And it’s just really weird.”
“Alessia’s” profile was removed soon after the outlet first contacted Varvaro for comment. The Daily Beast has also reached out to Varvaro.
In his inspector general complaint, Robert wrote that besides vacations, he had bought Varvaro Cartier jewelry and expensive handbags, despite not wanting a sugar daddy relationship.
He alleged that Varvaro told him previous sugar daddies had paid for her college education and bought her $40,000 worth of jewelry. She holds a Ph.D. in Homeland Security from St. John’s University in New York.
A former CIA officer told the Daily Mail that if true, allegations of a sugar daddy relationship and unreported income are “serious issues for DHS security personnel that need to be resolved.”
“In a senior counterterrorism role, those behaviors open you up to blackmail and show compromised judgment while putting national security at risk and undermining what it’s supposed to mean to serve the public,” another national security expert told the paper.
One government source compared the blackmail potential to allegations that Noem’s husband Bryon Noem paid sex workers tens of thousands of dollars to indulge his cross-dressing bimbo fetish.
A DHS spokesperson told the Daily Beast that the department does not comment on internal investigations.
During their first trip together, a long weekend spent in Aruba, Varvaro used her DHS position to have a TSA supervisor meet them at the United check-in counter and whisk them through security at Washington Dulles Airport, Robert said.
Later, when they were planning a trip to Italy that coincided with the Milan Olympics, she said she was DHS counterterrorism and could get them behind-the-scenes access, though they ultimately ended up skipping the games.
Varvaro denied ever offering to try to get them VIP access at the Olympics.
Eventually, she asked Robert to help pay her rent while she was furloughed, and requested $1,000 shoes, laser cellulite removal, and a credit card in her name so she could stop asking him for permission to shop.
In his complaint, Robert wrote that Varvaro had used marijuana about a dozen times in two months, as well as recreationally using Xanax.
Varvaro told the Daily Mail she had a prescription for Xanax but does not smoke marijuana and has “never taken any drugs for recreational use.”
She also denied “asking for anything crazy” during the relationship, saying it was “kind of a normal thing” for a man to get his girlfriend a credit card.
