{"id":39592,"date":"2021-03-25T17:20:22","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T15:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=39592"},"modified":"2025-08-30T10:28:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T07:28:55","slug":"instagram-influencer-charged-with-2-5m-bitcoin-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/instagram-influencer-charged-with-2-5m-bitcoin-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Instagram influencer charged with $2.5m Bitcoin fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Department of Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-edny\/pr\/popular-instagram-personality-known-jay-mazini-charged-wire-fraud\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has charged<\/a> the owner of a popular Instagram account known as Jay Mazini with wire fraud for taking Bitcoin from followers worth $2.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>Mazini (real name Jegara Igbara) rose to fame for his &#8220;cash giveaways&#8221; in exchange for cryptocurrency. His account had more than 1 million followers.<\/p>\n<p>According to the indictment, between January and February 2021 Igbara offered to purchase Bitcoin from users at a price 3.5\u20135% above market.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CMoD_MzM1Xk\/?utm_source=ig_embed&#038;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"13\">\n<div style=\"padding: 16px;\">\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 19% 0;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;\">View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\">\n<div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: auto;\">\n<div style=\"width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;\"><a style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CMoD_MzM1Xk\/?utm_source=ig_embed&#038;utm_campaign=loading\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Post by @jaymazinicancelled<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>For example, on February 14 he was &#8220;buying&#8221; BTC at $52,500 per coin, while the cryptocurrency&#8217;s average price did not exceed $47,000.<\/p>\n<p>The fraudster explained the unusual nature of the offer by saying that cryptocurrency exchanges cap the amount of Bitcoin he can buy.<\/p>\n<p>In return, Igbara sent subscribers fake payment receipts. In fact, victims either received only part of the agreed amount, or were left with nothing.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-edny\/press-release\/file\/1379561\/download\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the complaint<\/a>, filed with the Federal Court in Brooklyn on March 23, one of Jay Mazini&#8217;s followers sent him 50 BTC in exchange for $2.56 million. In return, the &#8220;seller&#8221; sent only $500,000.<\/p>\n<p>During the pretrial, Igbara was arrested. He faces up to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>Back in March, entrepreneur John McAfee faced charges of fraud and money laundering on seven counts. He faces a <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/john-mcafee-faces-up-to-100-years-in-prison-on-fraud-and-money-laundering-charges\">prison sentence of up to one hundred years<\/a>. McAfee <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/sec-files-suit-against-john-mcafee-he-has-been-arrested\">was arrested in Spain<\/a> in October 2020, and he awaits extradition to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>McAfee <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/john-mcafee-says-us-fraud-and-money-laundering-charges-are-overblown\">&#8216;overblown&#8217;<\/a>, and compared them with <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/john-mcafee-says-the-case-against-him-is-an-attack-by-the-us-on-all-cryptocurrencies\">&#8216;an attack on all cryptocurrencies&#8217;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Read ForkLog&#8217;s Bitcoin news on our <a href=\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Telegram<\/a> \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Department of Justice has charged the owner of a popular Instagram account under the handle Jay Mazini with stealing Bitcoin from followers worth $2.5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,1433,26],"class_list":["post-39592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crimes","tag-instagram","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"31","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39594,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39592\/revisions\/39594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}