An Instagram personality known for giving out cash to strangers in New York pleaded guilty Wednesday to running a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme and Bitcoin scam.
Jebara Igbara, who amassed nearly a million followers as Jay Mazini, entered his guilty plea in Brooklyn federal court and could face a possible 10-year prison sentence as part of his plea agreement.
Igbara, 27, built up his clout online by posting videos that showed him handing out cash to people waiting on line at grocery stores, working at a fast food restaurant in Queens, and to a woman he met at an airport who lost her purse, according to a criminal complaint.
“By posting such videos, Igbara created a public persona of himself as a person of substantial means,” the complaint reads.
Igbara admitted to using his company, Halal Capital, to run a Ponzi scheme between 2019 and 2021, taking cash from clients but never investing their money. Instead, he paid for his personal expenses, and used the money to fuel his Bitcoin scam
In that scheme, he offered to buy Bitcoin, which surged in value in 2021, for above market value, promising to wire his followers government-backed money in exchange for the cryptocurrency.
Between January and March 2021, Igbara offered to pay his followers $52,000 for one Bitcoin, which at the time had a market value of around $47,000. But Igbara never fully paid the Bitcoin sellers he found on Instagram — and sent them fake wire…
