NEW YORK (AP) — The previous Instagram influencer referred to as “ Jay Mazini ” who swindled tens of millions of {dollars} from on-line followers and a community of Muslims throughout the pandemic was sentenced to seven years in jail on Wednesday, prosecutors mentioned.
Jebara Igbara, 28, of New Jersey, had pleaded responsible to fraud fees, admitting that he created a Ponzi scheme that concerned cryptocurrency frauds netting round $8 million. Prosecutors say the cash funded a decadent way of life that included luxurious vehicles and a variety of playing.
Exploiting the financial chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, Igbara leveraged connections within the Muslim group to assemble investments for his agency Hallal Capital LLC, saying it could earn returns on shares, and the reselling of electronics and private protecting gear.
“Shamefully, he focused his personal spiritual group, making the most of their belief in him so he might spend and gamble their hard-earned cash,” mentioned Breon Peace, U.S. Lawyer for the Jap District of New York, in an announcement.
As he networked with high-value traders domestically, Igbara amplified his on-line persona, reaching round 1 million Instagram followers, prosecutors mentioned.
He constructed a following partially by filming money giveaways, usually handing stacks of cash to quick meals staff or on a regular basis folks testing at Walmart. In not less than one video, he handed out money alongside rapper 50 Cent.
Viewers acquired the impression he was so profitable he might simply give cash away. And his on-line recognition earned him much more belief from fraud victims, prosecutors mentioned.
By 2020, he attracted the ire of online sleuths who brazenly accused him of fraud, and cheered when he was arrested in 2021 on kidnapping fees. He later admitted in one other case to kidnapping a possible witness to his frauds.
However lots of his victims did flip to the FBI, in response to courtroom paperwork.
No less than 4 folks informed FBI brokers they despatched over $100,000 in Bitcoin, on a promise of a money wire switch, in response to courtroom paperwork. One sufferer reported being scammed out of fifty Bitcoin, with Igbara first faking $2.56 million in a wire switch, and later explaining away why the transfers hadn’t arrived.
Igbara addressed the folks he ripped off forward of his sentencing on Wednesday in a Brooklyn federal courtroom.
“He apologized profusely to his victims,” lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman mentioned following the sentencing Wednesday in Brooklyn.
Igbara’s seven-year sentence for fraud will run concurrently with five-year jail sentencing for the kidnapping and contains time served since 2021, his lawyer mentioned.
As a part of his sentence, Igbara is ordered to pay $10 million to his victims.
As for “Jay Mazini,” the Instagram and different social media accounts are largely scrubbed. However the saga lives on in compilations on YouTube, and in an episode of the 2023 documentary sequence “ The Age of Influence.”