The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Crystal Kung Minkoff, along with her brother and husband, have been named in a lawsuit over a car accident they are alleged to have caused.
The accident reportedly occurred last November, when a Los Angeles woman named Candice Shahandeh-Rad claims she was “suddenly and violently” rear-ended while stopped on a busy off-ramp.
She claims the impact caused her Audi to collide with the car in front.
Court documents allege that Jeffrey Kung, Crystal’s older brother, was driving the car responsible, and that after the accident, Jeffrey admitted that he had been “distracted.”
Although neither Crystal nor her husband, filmmaker Rob Minkoff, appear to have been in the car, the plaintiff believes that they own the silver Mercedes Benz that Jeffrey was reportedly driving.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, the plaintiff claims she was injured in the crash and is suing all three of them for her “pain and mental suffering.”
Who is Crystal’s brother Jeffrey Kung?
Bravo fans already know Jeffrey Kung as Crystal’s older brother and a not-infrequent presence on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
But the elder Kung sibling is also a celebrity in his very own right, with an illustrious music career in China.
In 2020, Jeffrey – who makes music under the name Kong Ling Qi – opened up about international pop-singer stardom, telling the Gaysian podcast how he got his big break.
The singer said he was discovered by a local talent agent while “singing a tune at a local karaoke” during his study-abroad days at Beijing’s Peking University.
Although the Kung siblings’ parents were born in China, Jeffrey revealed that he didn’t even speak Mandarin at the time and had “no training as a singer or even a musical background.”
Inside Jeffrey Kung’s Chinese hip hop stardom
But Jeffrey went on to record a hip-hop album, even taking home a Chinese Grammy for 2001’s New Artist of the Year – a year before he received his college degree from the University of Michigan.
After graduating, Jeffrey moved back to China and has been living there for more than 20 years.
Jeffrey might be less famous stateside than he is in China, but two of the singer’s biggest fans — his sister and her husband — are right here in the US.
When he visits Los Angeles, he sometimes babysits the couple’s two kids: son Max, 10, and daughter Zoe, 8.
Crystal and Rob reportedly like Jeffrey’s music so much that he was even called on to perform at their 2007 wedding reception.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is currently on hiatus. Seasons 1-12 are streaming on Peacock.