A U.S. district judge sentenced Jabara Igbara to seven years in prison.
He purported to be a crypto millionaire and targeted Muslims through a company called Halal-Capital LLC.
Jabara Igbara, also known as “Jay Mazini,” who claimed to be a crypto millionaire on Instagram, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Frederic Block to seven years in prison on wire fraud and money laundering charges. The sentence also requires Igbara to forfeit $10 million.
Igbara, 28, carried out multiple fraud schemes and scammed investors of at least $8 million, the United States Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday. He pleaded guilty to the charges in November 2022.
Through a company called Halal-Capital LLC, Igbara ran a Ponzi scheme that targeted Muslims, the Attorney’s Office said. He posted on his Instagram account and other social media offering above-market prices for cryptocurrencies and sent doctored images of wire-transfer conformations suggesting he had sent the money. In reality this was not the case.
“Igbara was a crypto con man. He not only created a fake online presence to purport that he was a wealthy crypto investor, he used his Instagram persona as proof of success when convincing his unsuspecting victims to invest in his schemes,” Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Special Agent-in-Charge Thomas Fattorusso said in the statement.
