An Instagram influencer, Jay Mazini has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment in New York for defrauding a network of Muslim followers to the tune of $8 million. The crime happened during the COVID-19 pandemic according to an AP report.
According to court reports, 28-year-old Jay Mazini whose real name is Jebara Igbara, pleaded guilty to fraud charges. He admitted that he created a Ponzi scheme that involved cryptocurrency fraud, raking in around $8 million.
Jay Mazini admitted to exploiting the economic chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic to leverage connections in the Muslim community and gather investments for his company, Hallal Capital LLC. He convinced his victims that their investments would earn returns in stocks, as well as the reselling of electronics and personal protective equipment.
“Shamefully, he targeted his own religious community, taking advantage of their trust in him so he could spend and gamble their hard-earned money,” the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, said in a statement.
Jay Mazini’s online persona
Jay Mazini went on to build an online persona depicting a very wealthy young man on his Instagram. Prosecutors say the money he gained from his criminal enterprise funded a decadent lifestyle that included luxury cars and a lot of gambling.
Prosecutors said while he networked with high-value investors locally, he also amplified his online persona, reaching around 1 million Instagram followers.
He built a following by doling out huge cash giveaways and filming the whole process. Several of his Instagram videos show him handing stacks of money to fast food workers or everyday people checking out at Walmart. He once featured 50 Cent in one of his videos where he handed out cash alongside the rapper.
With the constant exhibition of cash giveaways, the public impression was that he was so successful he could just give money away. This earned him a great deal of online popularity which in turn earned him even more trust from his victims, prosecutors said.
In 2020, he was openly accused of fraud, an accusation which would eventually lead to his arrest in 2021 on kidnapping charges. He would later admit in another case to kidnapping a potential witness to his frauds.
After discovering they had been defrauded, and that the Instagram influencer was facing charges, many of his victims started talking to the FBI. According to court documents, at least four people told FBI agents they sent over $100,000 in Bitcoin, on a promise of a cash wire transfer.
One victim said they were scammed out of 50 Bitcoin. They said Mazini initially faked a wire transfer of $2.56 million, before later explaining away why the transfers hadn’t arrived.
According to Mazini’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, his seven-year sentence for fraud will run concurrently with a five-year prison sentence for the kidnapping and will include time served since 2021. He has also been ordered to pay $10 million to his victims as part of his sentence.
The former Instagram Influencer reportedly addressed the people he defrauded ahead of his sentencing, “apologizing profusely to them” the lawyer said following the sentencing Wednesday in Brooklyn.
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