A federal court in Brooklyn has sentenced Instagram influencer Jebara Igbara, known as Jay Mazini, to 84 months in prison for orchestrating cryptocurrency scam schemes.
He was found guilty of wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering amounting to at least $8 million.
The sentence also mandates the forfeiture of $10 million from the defendant. The amount of restitution to victims will be announced later.
Igbara was arrested in March 2021 during the investigation following a complaint from one of his followers. In November 2022, he pleaded guilty to all charges.
According to the investigation, the influencer ran an Instagram account where he posted videos of giving away large sums of money. Simultaneously, Igbara allegedly bought cryptocurrency for cash at inflated rates but in reality, he was stealing assets from his followers.
He operated his scheme through a shell company, Halal-Capital LLC. Prosecutors stated that his primary targets were Muslims in New York:
“Unfortunately, he targeted his own religious community, exploiting their trust to steal and squander their hard-earned money. We hope today’s sentence will make similar fraudsters think twice about the consequences.”
According to law enforcement, Igbara crafted a false image of a wealthy crypto investor to lure victims.
Previously, Denish Sahadevan, better known on TikTok as investor Danny Devan, pleaded guilty to laundering government funds, including through bitcoin. He attempted to illegally obtain a $1.2 million COVID-19 relief loan.
In April, New York law enforcement arrested former JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank broker Rashawn Russell on suspicion of digital asset fraud.