An Instagram influencer with over a million followers has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering on Wednesday, scamming $8 million from “innocent investors” in a widespread Bitcoin scheme, according to the Justice Department. Jay Mazini, who in March pleaded guilty to separate charges of abducting a man he claimed was his nemesis, perpetrated two fraud schemes. The first involved a Ponzi scheme in which he took cash from the Muslim-American community in New York for alleged stocks, electronics resale and COVID PPE while instead spending the cash on personal expenses and gambling. In the second scam, Mazini, whose real name is Igbara Jebara, attempted to raise money to pay back his original victims by looping his Instagram followers into an alleged cryptocurrency giveaway. Mazini required his victims to send him money first before passing along doctored images of wire transfers, then shutting them out and taking their scratch. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
