The Age of Influence (2023–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - The Sinfluencer - full transcript
New Jersey entrepreneur Jay Mazini cons his way into wealth and internet fame through a series of schemes hinged upon the trust of his devoted social media disciples. His rapid ascent brands him a crypto-prophet, fashion designer ...
- So we're doing everything?
Like, from beginning to end?
- Yep.
- Like, the whole story?
Yep, the whole story.
Okay, um...
Okay.
Honestly, I... I really believe
that you just can't trust
anybody anymore.
Jay tried to paint this picture
that he was trying to bring
peace to the world.
- That's 10,000 for you.
- My God.
- That's 10,000 for you.
I just wanna show love.
My name is Jay Mazini.
Like, he helps the poor people
and he's a great Muslim.
Jay Mazini.
- What is your name?
Who are you?
- Like, wha...
- My name is Jay Mazini.
Jay Mazini.
- Jay Mazini? Yo.
- Thank you.
Thank you, my brother.
When somebody
would see these videos,
they would instantly feel
a connection to him.
Jay Mazini,
who is blessing people
in the streets of New York
and New Jersey.
He is so nice.
- He is awesome.
- He is so awesome.
- Yes.
And they would say,
"Jay Mazini's a great man.
Why would you call him fake?"
Because he brought
more anguish
and misery to my life
than I could ever
have thought to imagine.
You know, I didn't think
he was gonna do what he did.
I'm not a bad guy,
but he's ruined my life.
All right.
We are good to go.
- All right.
- You just do it like that
and boom.
So just,
give me a quick t... test audio
- and then we'll start.
- Yep.
Got a test?
- Testing, one, two. Testing.
- Perfect. Sounds good.
- Sounds good?
All right. Let's begin.
Hi, would you be interested
in a really quick interview?
Hi, would you guys be interested
in a really quick interview?
Hi, would you be interested
in a really quick interview
- for a show?
- All right.
All right.
Awesome. Ready?
My name is Karim Jovian.
I do a lot of things...
Social experiments
and a lot of storytelling,
man-on-the-street interviews
in New York City.
I have my Bible
that is disguised as a Qur'an.
"If evidence of virginity
"is not found in a young woman,
"then they shall bring out
the young woman
"to the door
of her father's house
and have the men of the city
stone her to death."
That's so up.
I think that's bull.
YouTube, I have
2.2 million subscribers,
Facebook, I have 2.1 million,
Instagram,
136, I think it is now,
and then TikTok, 150,000,
and I'm just starting
to build up my Snapchat,
so that's pretty small.
Hi. This is Karim.
For me growing up...
I honestly had a lot of people
that I looked up to
but none of them were Muslim.
I think it's just the faith
and the culture, you know?
It's stigmatized to be
in the entertainment industry.
So I'm using social media
to try to give people,
you know, a better light...
A better view of Muslims.
I would like to pay for you.
- Order whatever you want.
I'll pay for you.
- Yeah.
- What's he say?
- Yes.
- You're so nice.
- Thank you. I appreciate it.
Have a good one.
A lot of the Muslim channels
that I follow,
they were saying like,
"Look at you guys.
You're... are you
another Jay Mazini?"
Like, in the comments,
like, you know, telling me like,
"Hey, have you seen this guy?"
"Have you been watching Jay?"
"Have you seen
what he's doing?"
Like,
"Yo, this guy's blowin' up."
Some of the stuff he's doing
was kind of similar
to what we were doing.
But we would do it
on a smaller scale,
like, giving out
a couple of dollars.
He was giving out
thousands of dollars.
That's when
I really started noticing.
- Guys.
I need everybody's attention.
I remember the first video I saw
of him standing up on the table.
Was it a Walmart?
Or whatever it is,
it was some store.
And he was just throwing out
stacks of money.
- Everybody that gotta pay
their groceries,
I want you guys to come up.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
He was helping people
in need and giving money out.
And, you know, that's something
that we're supposed to do
in our faith in Islam.
This is, 10,000.
My God.
This is 10,000.
- I'm serious.
- No, you not.
I swear to God.
- No, you not.
- No.
- I swear.
Sometimes you gotta realize
there's more to life
than materialistic things...
Cars, fashion, jewelry.
He seemed very religious.
I seen some videos of his
with him walking
around in Mecca.
That was something like,
"Wow, like, this guy
"is making all this money,
he's helping all these people,
and look at him."
It was cool.
I mean, I'm gonna be honest.
It was really cool to see that.
You know, someone
who you could tell is a Muslim
because he has the full beard...
and he's helping people out.
We need more of that, you know?
So I knew Jay since I was a kid.
Islamic school
was an interesting experience.
We were literally going
to the mosque for school.
It was very small.
In tenth grade,
Jay Mazini
was one of the new students.
From what I recall,
Jay wasn't really
a popular student,
didn't really have
a lot of friends.
And, not to brag, you know,
I was the popular guy.
I was the better-looking one.
The girls all liked me.
But as soon as he started
to make money,
everybody loved him.
- I've seen his content online.
He's using YouTube,
talkin' about, like,
how he started, and...
And how he came up.
What's up,
my YouTube subscribers,
my supporters, and everybody
watchin' this video?
I've been receiving
a lot of messages
regarding my personal life
and how everything went along.
It started along
when I was about 14.
I would finish school.
I would take the train
to New York.
This is Fordham and Webster Ave.
In the Bronx, New York.
This is the same stand
I was hustlin' on
when I was 14 years old
all the way to 17 years old.
I had my colognes, perfumes,
electronics...
Anything I could get
my hands on and hustle.
I stayed there from,
you could say, 4:30 p.m.
to, like, 11:00, midnight.
So, in this video,
he mentions Wall Street.
And he wanted to go there
because that's
where all the money is made.
I used to take
the train to Wall Street
and cry to myself like,
"How can I be that person?
How can I have
the same thing they have?"
He talks about investing.
He got into penny stocks.
- I had about $70,000,
$80,000 saved up.
So I'm like, "Okay,
I'm gonna take this money.
I'm gonna invest it
into penny stock companies."
So if I lost it,
I would have lost all my money.
I took about $70,000 profit.
All of a sudden,
he was the rich guy
and everybody wanted
to be his friend.
He started making
a clothing brand.
He was posting a lot
about his brand, Mazini Italy.
It was all on his Instagram.
In the year 2016,
we started the brand fully,
where we had it in stores.
We had it
in different stores in Harlem.
We had it in the Bronx.
It was clippin'.
It was doin' really good.
Don't miss out.
Everything is sellin' out.
All sizes are available.
- I had just started learning
how to screen print
and make apparel.
And Jay comes and dumps
200 hoodies in front of me,
and he says, "Hey, I need
this done in three days."
I started workin' with him,
and he was always promisin',
"We're gonna get this job done
and we're gonna make
more money in the long run."
In that year,
we did about
1/2 million in wholesale.
It went great from there.
Like, the company
was skyrocketing.
At one point, he had his store
next to Gucci and Louis Vuitton.
And he was really trying
to portray his brand
as a designer product.
Before that time
of putting the brand together,
there was nights I was sleepin'
in the back of my car.
I didn't have money to eat
at... at times.
It was hard.
But the company's worth about
$8 million right now.
He blew up a lot
on social media.
He loved to flaunt
that he had a lot of money.
And he got collaborations
with a lot of big-name rappers,
specifically, like, Dave East.
He was one rapper
who actually helped
catapult him up.
- The hats are available now.
I mean, you can go
to the website.
It got the Mazini page
up on the 'gram.
Fabolous is another one
who helped catapult him up.
Nas, 50 Cent...
50 Cent is throwin'
out the dollar bills
to a group of deserving
fast food workers.
The entertainer teamed up
with Jay Mazini
for the epic surprise.
To see him with 50 Cent,
is what really
legitimized it for me.
I'm like,
"Yo, this guy is official."
That video sparked
so much attention
and got on the news.
And it literally got him
verified.
So when that happened,
he started to do it
over and over again.
Starts going to McDonald's.
He starts going to another
Checkers restaurant.
He does it another ten times,
which is...
Caused him to gain hundreds
of thousands of followers.
He was giving out
hundreds of thousands
of dollars in one night.
And it was being shared
across all platforms.
People eat that up.
That's viral content.
And I thought,
"This guy's gonna be huge.
"He's gonna be
one of the biggest
"Muslim entertainers
or creators," you know?
"This guy is gonna
be something else."
- It's gonna be all right.
Come here, come here.
- I hate to say it, but I knew
Jay Mazini was scamming
from the moment
I laid eyes on him.
And so I... I felt like
I had to take him down.
My name is Stephen Findeisen.
I run a YouTube channel
called Coffeezilla
where I investigate
and bust scams.
I uncovered a fraud
worth $4 billion.
This is the story of SafeMoon,
a crypto coin that millions...
I kind of settled
on investigating scams
'cause when I was a kid,
my mom had been scammed a lot,
my friends
had been scammed a lot.
I realize this is
a very unheard segment
of the population
who have been exploited.
And there's just not a lot
or people covering it.
I just want to make
the world a better place
by, hopefully, shining
some light on these scams.
- Sure.
I remember
somebody came to me and said,
"You gotta go check out
this guy.
"He's got
nearly a million followers.
And he's giving away money
all the time."
A drive-through customer
gave Nigel and his employees
10 grand apiece.
- I was just sayin'
to myself the whole time,
"Like, hold on,
I hope this is not a prank."
I just wanted to say
thank you, man, and...
From me and my crew members.
Just want to say thank you.
So take this all
with a grain of salt
because this is
all self-reported
by Jay Mazini,
real name Jebara Igbara.
But according to him,
he had hustled
a cologne and hat shop.
He had turned that
into penny stock investing,
which he turned
into a fashion brand
of himself.
- The company's worth
about $8 million right now.
- I think there's
an enormous pressure
that comes with success,
because you have
to keep it going.
Momentum doesn't
just keep happening.
You have to make it happen.
And so for Jay,
he started doing
these giveaways.
For the first 500 orders,
we'll be placing $1,000
in each order.
Minimum three products.
He would give away cash prizes
as part of the package.
So you would order
from Mazini Italy,
but you have to have a minimum
of, like, five orders.
This was a way for him to drive
more and more sales
to his business.
- This is gonna be
a mystery box.
Minimum order
of three Mazini products
in order to win what?
In order to win maybe $10,000,
maybe $20,000, maybe $30,000.
- Eventually, as he started
trying to drive
more and more sales,
he would offer
bigger and bigger sums.
- The next 500 orders,
I'll be placing in
$5,000 in each box.
For the next 1,000 orders,
I'll be placing in
$12,000 in each order.
Minimum order,
six Mazini Italy products.
For the next 800 people
to place an order
on the Mazini Italy site,
there'll be $40,000
in each order.
Minimum order
is ten Mazini Italy items.
How could he be giving
that amount of money away
just for selling clothes?
First time
I heard about Jay Mazini,
you know, it was a video
of him giving out money.
I started scrolling
through his profile
and I started seeing,
like, images of him,
like, showing himself
as a devout Muslim
who came up from rags to riches.
That was the story
that he painted.
And it was something that,
of course, inspires you.
Well, I haven't been
the best saver in my life.
And, of course,
when you're having a family
and you finally have
like, a good job,
you start having to think
about, you know,
the long-term future.
And that was always
behind my mind.
So I'm like,
"Okay, I want to really get
into investing and trading."
And I saw his post
that he created this academy
that teaches students
how to trade stocks.
Mazini Academy
was started in 2019.
And for about $2,000,
you could get
stock tips from Jay,
learn how to trade stocks,
learn how to invest wisely.
- Mazini Academy,
educating people
in stocks, Forex.
He used
the stock market to get rich.
And he wants, you know,
you to follow
in those footsteps.
And he said, of course,
"The first 100 people
who register will get..."
- $20,000 each too,
which accumulates to $2 million.
This is not a raffle.
It's more of a educational...
You're benefiting anyways.
- So I'm like,
"This is it for me.
"Let's... let's get in.
Let's get into the trading
and investing."
The academy is set up
through a medium called Discord.
And the way it was set up
was very, very professional.
The classes were legitimate.
You can see the amount
of people online
in the Discord channel.
When Jay Mazini came on,
you saw the green lights
start lighting up
and more members
started coming on like,
"My God, Jay Mazini's on.
Let's go see him."
And he was, like, truly...
You could see
that celebrity in him.
Like, "Relax, people, he's...
He's just a person."
One day he comes on and says,
"Guys, I have a little bit
of a treat or a gift to you.
"What if I were to tell you
that there was a stock
"that you would trade
and you'd make
"a lot of money off today?
Do you wanna know what it is?"
People say, "Yes," "yes,"
"yes," "my God."
Girls heart-eye'd Jay Mazini.
And we're waiting for him,
and he took a pause
and he said, "PSV."
It was basically
a tanker company
that, like, holds oil.
And he's like,
"If you guys get in right now,
you'd get to be making
a lot of money."
So I take $4,000.
It was money that, you know,
me and my wife talked about,
we saved over a period of time.
And I put 99% of that money
into this stock.
And I think
for the first half an hour,
the stocks didn't go up.
Started going from $1.12,
$1.15, $1.23...
People were asking like,
"When should we sell?
When should we sell?"
We're taking his direction.
People believed in him.
And I remember after lunch
when the stocks
started going down,
he says, "Just...
Just the sharks
are comin' out later.
The sharks."
Whatever the hell that means,
"The sharks are comin' out."
I didn't even know
what that means.
But... but, basically,
he was doin' his best
to assure us that, you know,
we'll get out of this okay.
And it went under a dollar
at the end of that day.
And it just kept going
lower and lower.
And I think people,
at that point,
were really concerned
about Jay Mazini.
They were really thinkin'
at that point like,
"He left us out to dry."
He did mention to us,
"You're doing this
at your own risk."
He said that to us.
But...
I had a lot of faith
in that man.
I should have pulled out
at that point and said,
"Cut your losses, man.
You don't know shit about this...
About this stock."
"Get out."
I didn't get out.
Influence is powerful stuff.
You can inspire people
to improve themselves.
You can also inspire people
to give you money
based on the idea
you're gonna get them rich.
You could kind of tell
by his videos
that he was always going on
to the next big thing.
That's how he kind of pulled
more people in.
And that big thing
was Halal Capital.
"Halal" is something
that's permissible,
that's not against our faith.
In Islam, we have
a very strict way of investing.
You can't just invest
in anything.
So they would trust someone
who is Muslim
like Jay Mazini.
And they would put money
into his foundations
or his funds or whatever
investments he's doing,
because he was saying
that he's doing
the halal investments.
- I'm showin' the world
what Islam really is,
how we're raised to be.
I think that key word "halal"
just offered
a lot of, like, comfort
when you wanna invest.
In our belief, we have to stay
away from things that offer
gambling or alcohol.
Different things like that,
you know?
When Halal Capital was formed,
it was supposed to be
an investing company
started by Jay Mazini.
The first time I heard about it
was through my cousin.
He explained it to me
that Halal Capital
was buying merchandise, okay?
And they would...
They would buy it in bulk
and resell it,
that he was getting paid
on monthly flips.
So if you invest this much,
you would get this return.
If you invest a little bit more,
it's a higher return.
And he would just,
you know, show me
that they were getting returns
and saying,
"Hey, so far, so good."
This was, like, March of 2020.
Times were pretty tough
as far as business-wise.
And they were offering products
that people were short of.
They know that masks
are in short supply.
They knew hand sanitizer
was in short supply.
They have these items
and the hospitals needed them.
The stores needed them.
So we got a text message
letting us know
that there's
a monthly flip coming
which involved hand sanitizer.
So I thought
maybe it's a good idea
to take whatever
we have saved, um...
It would...
It's a substantial amount.
I'm gonna say it's a few
hundred thousand dollars.
We thought that this is...
You know, this is a homerun.
Yeah, the time
for payment would come.
We would message him
and he would say,
"Okay, you know,
"Ramadan celebration's
gonna hit this time.
"I'm sorry, but, you know,
there's gonna be
a little delay."
We understood.
We let that go.
So a week passes by
after our promised,
deadline of getting paid,
and no... we don't hear anything.
I start, like, asking questions.
I asked my cousin to see
if they got anything.
And I contact the... the mosque
because they also got in
as well.
It was the whole community.
It wasn't just our family.
At that time,
looking at his profile
and kind of trying
to get an idea
of who we're dealing with here,
it didn't make us feel too good
because we knew that he had
a different persona.
I did try
to confront Jay myself, okay?
I was like, "Hey, listen,
we invested a substantial
amount of money."
He gave me a story saying that...
That he had 18 duffel bags'
worth of...
Full of money,
and he got stuck up.
In what world do you walk around
carrying 18 duffle bags'
worth of cash?
You know, we...
We didn't believe it for a bit.
However, at that time,
we didn't want to go full force
and ruin his reputation.
Because we didn't want to risk
him losing more money
so we couldn't get paid.
So we kind of held our tongues.
And we held our stance, saying,
"Okay, let him do
what he needs to do
to sell his merchandise."
He still had
that whole Mazini Academy.
There's a real
skill set to being a scammer.
In a large way, the way he's
getting away with it is because
nobody with a big platform
is calling out what he's doing.
I started to believe that
he really scammed us.
That stock was filing
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
That's a key, important
information, Jay.
Like, you should have
told us, right?
You should have
at least told us,
"This company is going through
Chapter 11 proceedings.
They're gonna go bankrupt."
And that wasn't told to us.
He used the academy to,
what's called in the,
you know,
the financial industry,
a pump and dump.
And a pump and dump
is when someone has
a position in a stock,
meaning that they owned
a number of shares
in that stock.
And he basically convinced
the masses and his students
to invest in that stock,
which caused an up-tick
for that stock to go higher.
And once it hit
that desired point,
he can get out of his position.
That's what I believe
he did, right?
Because he understood
that we were new
and he could take advantage
of that emotion
and of his image.
Jay Mazini,
he was an online sensation.
He was out there
giving out money,
giving out prizes.
But that money
that he was giving out
at that time,
we had a feeling.
We had a feeling that
he was giving out our money.
- I'll be giving away
$10,000 ea...
This is just an example.
He was on Instagram Live,
paying people's rent...
Thank you so much.
I respect that.
I knew... I knew I won.
- Yeah, you won. God bless.
But he owed me, like, $1,000.
I was still doing business
with him at the time.
And it's like,
I'm supposed to be his friend.
So I was constantly
telling people
to watch out for Jay.
"Do not give him your money.
Do not trust him.
He's going to screw you over."
And no one ever believed me.
Everybody just kept
dismissing me as a lunatic,
and it drove me insane.
It was... it...
It drove me into depression.
I... you know, I... I tried
to recover on my own,
but when you don't have
that many friends
because they all sided with Jay,
there's not much to do.
But the Jay Mazini scam page
helped bring that message out.
A bunch of pages
popped up on Instagram
basically saying all the things
that he was saying was a lie.
They'd talk about
victim testimonials.
A lot of people started
coming out with Jay,
especially from the giveaways.
Of course, the reality was...
people weren't actually
getting the money.
There's no money.
So I started talking
to the scam page.
I was like,
"I have some stuff that...
Some content you could add
to your page, you know?"
Yo, Jay, stop lying to people.
Stop acting shady online.
Stop putting up this front,
because you are not
who you say you are.
I laid it out straight.
I said, "You know,
stop tryna present yourself
"like you're
this prophetic figure
"or somebody who deserves to be
"a... a power of influence at all,
"because you're a fake.
"And, eventually,
it's all gonna come
crashing down on you."
Back in the homeland,
if there was a dispute
with another family,
you would get your clan or tribe
to go talk
to members of their family.
And with Jay,
some people did go over
to speak to his family.
And it wasn't very successful.
Like, um, his dad just told them
that, you know,
"He kind of does his own thing.
He doesn't live here anymore."
It just... it gave us,
like, more worries
than... than anything positive.
Everybody wants
their pound of flesh.
When you feel
you've been victimized,
you... you want
to be made whole again.
And the way you do that
is by filing
usually a lawsuit
against that person.
And in this case,
Jay's family was getting
roped into this mess
through a civil suit.
My name is Jeremy Feigenbaum.
The firm has dealt with a number
of high-profile individuals,
probably the most famous
of which would be Anna Delvey.
Delvey, whose real name
is Anna Sorokin
is a scam artist.
Overnight, a New York City jury
finding socialite Anna Sorokin,
the so-called "Soho Grifter,"
guilty on eight counts
including grand larceny,
attempted grand larceny,
and theft of services.
Charisma is a huge,
huge factor in all of this.
The reason she was able
to be Anna Delvey
is because she had such
immense levels of charisma,
where you just couldn't help
but wanna talk with her
and become her friend.
Anna and Jay, many similarities
to how they operate,
in my opinion.
I first heard about Jay
when Jay and his family
came to us
with respect to claims
that were being made
against him.
From allegations about
people not getting
the types of packages
that he promised,
or gifts that he said
he would send...
Ain't nothin'.
Knew nothin'
wasn't gonna be in here.
To people investing their cash
and the money wasn't returned
when requested.
Some of the individuals
involved with that
were very angry
at what they believed
Jay had done
with some their cash.
I... I just don't know
what he thought
was gonna happen.
Like, there was no consequences
goin' through his mind saying,
"Okay, I'm just gonna
rob these people
and now I'll just
sail into the sunset"?
I mean, of course,
we want our money back.
But I personally,
I just wanna see
justice being served, right?
Jay's family
came to us, obviously,
fairly distressed and upset
about what was going on.
The plaintiffs
alleged direct fraud
against Jay himself.
And then against the family,
they alleged aiding
and abetting.
And they were, obviously,
very much wanting
to protect Jay
and themselves rightfully.
And I think
they wanted to figure out
what exactly was going on.
The academy
was becoming very toxic.
We all lost a lot of money
and we need an explanation.
We need to talk...
Talk this through.
And, um, Jay Mazini
never showed up,
never explained to us
what happened.
And that's when I started
devising a plan
on how we could bring
this person to justice.
Started looking into what
we could do with the SCC.
I went on the SCC website
and I filled out a complaint.
Nobody took action,
and at this point, like,
the more he's able
to continue this,
the more people were scammed.
- I'll be placin' in
$40,000 in each order.
100 people, $40,000?
Your clothes are gonna cost,
like, what, 150 bucks, $100?
You're givin' out $40,000...
How does that make sense?
He was getting desperate.
I think he just kept digging
himself a bigger hole.
And that's why
those scams became...
They were more, like,
important to him.
I think with Jay,
you did see an escalation.
I was on the phone a lot
talking to the various victims
of Jay.
When I first started,
it was all about
the giveaway scams.
And then he would try
to start up some new schemes.
- Regarding the Mazini Academy,
I've already selected ten people
which I'll be giving
$5,000 each to
- which accumulates...
- But he was pivoting
almost as fast
as I could report on it.
- Now, I'll be starting up
a new campaign.
He started talking
a lot about crypto currencies.
Specifically, he wanted
to buy it from the fans.
He told people
that he was going to buy
Bitcoin from them
for 5%-10% over market value.
And the reason
he was gonna do this
is because he wanted to buy
so much of it
that crypto exchanges
literally wouldn't let him
buy so much.
Once Jay got someone
who was willing
to buy him some Bitcoin,
he'd say, "Just send me
the Bitcoin first
"and I will send you
the wire same day.
It'll just take a little bit."
So pretty quickly,
these wires
didn't actually get through.
And people realized
they had joined the list
of Jay's victims,
and they got in touch with me.
He said,"
I sent your account 500,000.
Go check your account
I sent you the confirmation."
Two, three days later,
there's nothing.
There's no money.
There's nothing.
The confirmation's
a made-up number.
I'm hoping to God
he rots in jail.
Jay was so shameless.
He would show them
his passport, his ID.
He would show them
it's not a scam.
Who shows their passport
to somebody
when they're about to allegedly
fake a wire transfer?
That's where I realized,
"Well, this is almost
certainly another crime."
You can't fake a wire transfer.
Coffeezilla really did
great detective work
on Jay Mazini
and catapulted the attention
onto the scam page.
It started blowing up in views.
And it was...
It got so much attention.
Because of how popular
it was getting,
when you would search
"Jay Mazini,"
right underneath it would say
"Jay Mazini scam."
And he hated it
because he was so used
to everybody supporting him.
And now all of a sudden,
everyone's against him.
- Scammin' how? Scammin' how?
I got a clothes line.
I got an academy.
We sell clothes.
We teach stocks.
So I was a
heavy supporter of this page.
And, it wasn't me,
but I thought it would be funny
to spread a rumor
that it was me.
MJ was one
of the people I spoke to.
Jay Mazini and him have a past.
They went to school together.
And he would always kind of
make fun of Jay,
tease Jay.
And MJ started to tell
Jay Mazini
that he actually ran
the scam page...
The thing that was ruining
Jay Mazini's life.
Jay Mazini was under
a lot of pressure.
He started to get
really paranoid.
Reportedly,
he was hiring bodyguards
for $7,000 a week,
trying to ensure
a crumbling sense of security.
- Fake allegations.
Fake accusations.
Try to tarnish me.
You can't tarnish greatness.
You can't curse
what God blessed.
You can see his ego
bumping up against
all the allegations
that were starting to come out
around this time.
Like,
"You can't tarnish greatness."
That's who Jay thought
of himself as.
Like, he really thought
he was great.
And he thought
he was above the rules.
You disrespected us.
You basically
threatened people that,
"If you guys say this is a scam,
you're kicked out.
You're gone."
So he tried to silence people.
And I'm like, "You're...
You're not gonna silence me.
"You're not gonna silence
the people
that lost this money.
Like, it's on now."
It was getting so much traction.
People were starting
to follow the page.
We're getting new people
every single day
with new stories.
Everybody would share
their story
and how they lost money
with Jay.
So the scam page was destroying
Jay's reputation,
his authenticity,
his trust with his audience.
He was literally spiraling
out of control.
And, I enjoyed
every minute of it.
So as things started heating up,
Jay disables
his own Instagram account.
When you shut down your page,
it's like closing your shop.
Your entire income stream stops
in the case of someone like Jay.
That was the turning point
where I realized
that things were starting
to get to him.
Then things went
to a whole other level.
The Jay Mazini scam page
was ruining his reputation
so much.
And so many people
in the community
started talking about it.
And Jay believed that
I was running the page.
It was a joke,
but people
really took it seriously.
So it's 2:00 a.m.
in the morning.
I get a friendly phone call
from Jay Mazini.
I was like...
Know what? All right.
I'll meet up with you.
So I went to Edgewater,
parked my car,
and then I saw Jay.
I was like... I haven't seen him
in, like, almost three years.
I was like,
"Hey, what's up, man?
You got fat there, buddy.
How's it goin'?"
He goes, "It's good, man."
Jump into the car.
We start drivin'.
And I turn to him,
I'm like, "Yo, listen.
"What's goin' on?
"What's all this,
like, scams, money?
"You pissed off
a lot of Muslims.
So what happened? Tell me."
He goes,
"Nah, man, it wasn't me.
"I swear to God.
I'm just tryna like,
"you know, raise a family.
"Like, I got a son coming soon.
Like, I'm just tryna get
my stuff together."
We finally get to the 7-Eleven.
You know, I... I wasn't
looking behind me,
but the door opens.
I look back and I'm just like,
"Who the hell are these guys?"
It's just two Black men
with hoodies on.
And then he starts driving off.
And he goes, "Don't worry.
We're not gonna hurt you."
I was like, "Really? Really?
You... you're not gonna hurt me?
Who are these guys?"
I was like...
I was like,
"Yo, what's your name, buddy?
We good? You don't want
to shake my hand."
I was like, "You don't want
to shake my hand?
"You don't want
to shake my hand?
Okay."
At that point,
I have to strategize.
What am I gonna do?
These guys have me in the car.
So as soon as we pulled up
to Chase Bank,
I pop the door open and I run.
Start running like I'm running
the race of my life right now.
I made a quick left,
saw a alleyway.
But it was a dead end.
"What do I do? What do I do?"
I see a staircase.
I'm like, "Cool. Staircase."
I run up the staircase.
It's a frickin' balcony.
I... I made a jump.
I jumped from the second floor.
Unfortunately,
I sprained my ankle.
I couldn't run anymore.
Got jumped by both guys
right there
in the middle of the street.
They forced me
to the back seat of the car.
He says,
"Where's your phone, man?"
I was like,
"You want my phone?"
They wanted my phone
because they believed
that I was running
the Jay Mazini scam page.
I gave him my phone.
I let him take the password.
Even through all that,
they still couldn't get the page
because I was never in charge
of the page.
He goes, "All right.
We'll see about that."
He's driving me to Passaic.
And he goes
and he picks up another man.
This is pretty much the man
that they've hired
to beat the page out of me.
They take me to a basement.
And they strip me down
to everything.
I was, like, completely naked.
And this guy's got a machete
up to my neck.
He starts punching me
in the head
and, like, yelling at me.
Like, Arabic slurs.
He's like, "We would kill you
from where we come from."
He's like, "Where's the page?"
I'm like, "I'm telling you,
I don't have it."
And Jay's
just sitting there laughing
like he thinks it's funny.
He goes, "All right, you ready?
I'm gonna punch you.
Are you ready?"
I was like,
"Dude, just freakin' do it.
"I've been punched enough.
Like, I don't...
"I don't even feel pain
at this point.
Just freakin' do it already."
Gives me a punch.
And he thinks that, like,
it really hurt me.
But when I took the punch,
I kind of pretended
to cry a little bit
and I actually made him
feel bad for me.
He was like, "You know what?
"That's... that's enough, man.
We're done.
Just... just let him go."
He dropped me in Edgewater
and forced me
to limp back to my car.
What they did to me
is... is, like, despicable,
and there's no other words
to explain
what was going through my head.
And though... and I... I'm sorry,
but I'm not a gangsta
who's gonna come
and fire back at you.
I'm gonna...
Gonna do the right thing
and go to the police.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's true.
Jay Mazini has been arrested.
And not for the reason
you think.
Honestly,
that was a surprise to us,
what he was arrested for...
For kidnapping and beating.
After doing that video
with 50 Cent,
I think he wanted
to kind of take on
a little bit more
of a gangster type
of, like, persona.
So that was
a little bit shocking.
But at the same time,
afterwards, it made sense.
- You know?
- But he was arrested.
We watched every moment of that
on the New Jersey state website.
It was so relieving
to see this guy
in an orange jumpsuit, my God.
On one hand, you have
to be highly intelligent
to accomplish
some of these things
that these influencers
have done.
But at the same time,
to sometimes act in a manner
that's so contrary
to your interest,
it's baffling.
How did you see this going?
You kidnap someone,
more likely than not,
they're probably gonna
go to the police.
And then you're gonna
have to deal with
those ramifications.
I just don't get it.
I couldn't believe it.
Obviously, I knew this guy
was a scammer.
I had no idea
he was capable of this.
So Jay Mazini's
getting arrested,
you would think
that would be the end of it.
But this story never stops.
So right as all that's
happening,
Jay Mazini's wife
was allegedly trying
to bribe MJ to recant his story.
And I was hearing rumors
that he might take it.
So I got on the phone with him
and I recorded the call.
Yeah.
I've never shared this before.
Here we go.
- You're hearing me realize
for the first time
that MJ's about to change
his story
to try to get Jay Mazini out.
- The man got bribed!
Yeah.
It's unbelievable.
It was very clear at that point
that MJ was not after justice.
He was not after, you know,
making things right
for the victims.
He was out for himself
just like Jay was.
His angle was,
"Well, no, this is my shot.
This is my opportunity
to get everything I want."
I can get Coffeezilla
to get me clicks
and then I'm gonna get
on the news.
And then I'm gonna get
on a documentary.
I'm sure he's happy
to talk to you guys.
And now he's in jail
for accepting the bribe.
I'm being charged with bribery.
They're saying that I was paid
to change my statement.
The first statement that I gave
was right after the kidnapping.
And then after
some time passed by,
you know, I learned
some new information.
And I'm not gonna lie.
I was manipulated
by even my own family to... to...
To have a change of heart.
That was my biggest mistake.
In a complaint filed
in federal court in Brooklyn,
Jay Mazini, whose legal name
is Jebara Igbara,
was charged with wire fraud.
Jay Mazini ended up
pleading guilty
to the kidnapping charge,
which he's gonna serve
five years for.
On the Bitcoin
wire fraud charges,
he potentially could serve
15 to 30 years.
And then Jay Mazini's wife
was arrested too.
Her, along with other people,
are charged with trying to bribe
this guy right here
who got beat up.
- Okay. Good afternoon, all.
Mr. Jebara,
can you hear us and see us?
- Yes.
I watched Jay Mazini's
first court hearing.
He's in an orange jumpsuit,
crying, because
he's finally realizing
the magnitude of what he's done.
And... I don't know.
It was like the ending
of a really cathartic movie
or something,
where the... the music sweeps in
and you feel like
justice is finally
being served here.
So right now I'm flipping
through the voluminous
52-page complaint
that was asserted against
Jay and his family.
The allegations in here
are wide-ranging,
alleging everything from
fake stories of being robbed
to fraudulent promises
of fantastical returns
on investments
to embezzling funds
and using them
for personal purposes.
We got the case dismissed
against the family,
but Jay's got
a lot in front of him.
And given some of
these allegations,
the road that Jay has to travel
to get through
all of his legal troubles
is not short.
There's countless
victims of Jay Mazini.
The ones that we know of.
But there's a lot of people
that they don't want to come out
and say anything, right?
There... there's the people
that feel ashamed.
I mean, honestly,
everybody in the community
felt ashamed.
It transformed the community
from being so honest
with each other
and giving and caring
and to be like,
"Do I have to watch out
"for this person
to be the next person
that's looking
to take advantage?"
When you scam people,
it's never a good thing.
There's a reason why it's
against our faith in Islam
that you're not supposed to do
these types of things.
And I hope people
don't equate us all
to one man's actions, you know?
He was able
to really sell himself
on, you know,
the fact that he was
this pious Muslim.
- I want to show you guys
the real definition of Islam.
That stuck
a really strong chord with me.
I'm like, "You... you did this
to other people.
"You used faith,
"something
they're really devoted to,
and you take their money?"
That's why I was, like,
so kind of, like,
passionate about getting
this guy thrown in jail.
I think what's so compelling
about social media
is just how deeply involved
you can get
in someone's life
that can be a fake,
that can be not real.
It could be constructed.
This power of the influencer
is very, very real.
In my opinion,
social media enabled
this entire operation to occur.
It enabled Jay Mazini to exist.
Without social media,
he would have always just been
Jebara Igbara.
- If you're suffering
through a hardship
and you need help...
Somebody to uplift you,
somebody to give you hope,
somebody to, like...
To hold the light
at the end of the tunnel,
I wanted to be that person.
I didn't do it
for just the money.
I wanted to pave the way
for the youth
so they could have
something to look up to.
They could have hope.
This is, 10,000.
My God.
That's 10,000.
I'm serious.
No, you not.
- Here's what's amazing,
I can't help but smile
when he gives this woman $10,000
even though I know
where it came from.
That's just how powerful
this kind of content is.
- Hope everybody enjoys
this video.
Take care, you guys.
Like, from beginning to end?
- Yep.
- Like, the whole story?
Yep, the whole story.
Okay, um...
Okay.
Honestly, I... I really believe
that you just can't trust
anybody anymore.
Jay tried to paint this picture
that he was trying to bring
peace to the world.
- That's 10,000 for you.
- My God.
- That's 10,000 for you.
I just wanna show love.
My name is Jay Mazini.
Like, he helps the poor people
and he's a great Muslim.
Jay Mazini.
- What is your name?
Who are you?
- Like, wha...
- My name is Jay Mazini.
Jay Mazini.
- Jay Mazini? Yo.
- Thank you.
Thank you, my brother.
When somebody
would see these videos,
they would instantly feel
a connection to him.
Jay Mazini,
who is blessing people
in the streets of New York
and New Jersey.
He is so nice.
- He is awesome.
- He is so awesome.
- Yes.
And they would say,
"Jay Mazini's a great man.
Why would you call him fake?"
Because he brought
more anguish
and misery to my life
than I could ever
have thought to imagine.
You know, I didn't think
he was gonna do what he did.
I'm not a bad guy,
but he's ruined my life.
All right.
We are good to go.
- All right.
- You just do it like that
and boom.
So just,
give me a quick t... test audio
- and then we'll start.
- Yep.
Got a test?
- Testing, one, two. Testing.
- Perfect. Sounds good.
- Sounds good?
All right. Let's begin.
Hi, would you be interested
in a really quick interview?
Hi, would you guys be interested
in a really quick interview?
Hi, would you be interested
in a really quick interview
- for a show?
- All right.
All right.
Awesome. Ready?
My name is Karim Jovian.
I do a lot of things...
Social experiments
and a lot of storytelling,
man-on-the-street interviews
in New York City.
I have my Bible
that is disguised as a Qur'an.
"If evidence of virginity
"is not found in a young woman,
"then they shall bring out
the young woman
"to the door
of her father's house
and have the men of the city
stone her to death."
That's so up.
I think that's bull.
YouTube, I have
2.2 million subscribers,
Facebook, I have 2.1 million,
Instagram,
136, I think it is now,
and then TikTok, 150,000,
and I'm just starting
to build up my Snapchat,
so that's pretty small.
Hi. This is Karim.
For me growing up...
I honestly had a lot of people
that I looked up to
but none of them were Muslim.
I think it's just the faith
and the culture, you know?
It's stigmatized to be
in the entertainment industry.
So I'm using social media
to try to give people,
you know, a better light...
A better view of Muslims.
I would like to pay for you.
- Order whatever you want.
I'll pay for you.
- Yeah.
- What's he say?
- Yes.
- You're so nice.
- Thank you. I appreciate it.
Have a good one.
A lot of the Muslim channels
that I follow,
they were saying like,
"Look at you guys.
You're... are you
another Jay Mazini?"
Like, in the comments,
like, you know, telling me like,
"Hey, have you seen this guy?"
"Have you been watching Jay?"
"Have you seen
what he's doing?"
Like,
"Yo, this guy's blowin' up."
Some of the stuff he's doing
was kind of similar
to what we were doing.
But we would do it
on a smaller scale,
like, giving out
a couple of dollars.
He was giving out
thousands of dollars.
That's when
I really started noticing.
- Guys.
I need everybody's attention.
I remember the first video I saw
of him standing up on the table.
Was it a Walmart?
Or whatever it is,
it was some store.
And he was just throwing out
stacks of money.
- Everybody that gotta pay
their groceries,
I want you guys to come up.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
He was helping people
in need and giving money out.
And, you know, that's something
that we're supposed to do
in our faith in Islam.
This is, 10,000.
My God.
This is 10,000.
- I'm serious.
- No, you not.
I swear to God.
- No, you not.
- No.
- I swear.
Sometimes you gotta realize
there's more to life
than materialistic things...
Cars, fashion, jewelry.
He seemed very religious.
I seen some videos of his
with him walking
around in Mecca.
That was something like,
"Wow, like, this guy
"is making all this money,
he's helping all these people,
and look at him."
It was cool.
I mean, I'm gonna be honest.
It was really cool to see that.
You know, someone
who you could tell is a Muslim
because he has the full beard...
and he's helping people out.
We need more of that, you know?
So I knew Jay since I was a kid.
Islamic school
was an interesting experience.
We were literally going
to the mosque for school.
It was very small.
In tenth grade,
Jay Mazini
was one of the new students.
From what I recall,
Jay wasn't really
a popular student,
didn't really have
a lot of friends.
And, not to brag, you know,
I was the popular guy.
I was the better-looking one.
The girls all liked me.
But as soon as he started
to make money,
everybody loved him.
- I've seen his content online.
He's using YouTube,
talkin' about, like,
how he started, and...
And how he came up.
What's up,
my YouTube subscribers,
my supporters, and everybody
watchin' this video?
I've been receiving
a lot of messages
regarding my personal life
and how everything went along.
It started along
when I was about 14.
I would finish school.
I would take the train
to New York.
This is Fordham and Webster Ave.
In the Bronx, New York.
This is the same stand
I was hustlin' on
when I was 14 years old
all the way to 17 years old.
I had my colognes, perfumes,
electronics...
Anything I could get
my hands on and hustle.
I stayed there from,
you could say, 4:30 p.m.
to, like, 11:00, midnight.
So, in this video,
he mentions Wall Street.
And he wanted to go there
because that's
where all the money is made.
I used to take
the train to Wall Street
and cry to myself like,
"How can I be that person?
How can I have
the same thing they have?"
He talks about investing.
He got into penny stocks.
- I had about $70,000,
$80,000 saved up.
So I'm like, "Okay,
I'm gonna take this money.
I'm gonna invest it
into penny stock companies."
So if I lost it,
I would have lost all my money.
I took about $70,000 profit.
All of a sudden,
he was the rich guy
and everybody wanted
to be his friend.
He started making
a clothing brand.
He was posting a lot
about his brand, Mazini Italy.
It was all on his Instagram.
In the year 2016,
we started the brand fully,
where we had it in stores.
We had it
in different stores in Harlem.
We had it in the Bronx.
It was clippin'.
It was doin' really good.
Don't miss out.
Everything is sellin' out.
All sizes are available.
- I had just started learning
how to screen print
and make apparel.
And Jay comes and dumps
200 hoodies in front of me,
and he says, "Hey, I need
this done in three days."
I started workin' with him,
and he was always promisin',
"We're gonna get this job done
and we're gonna make
more money in the long run."
In that year,
we did about
1/2 million in wholesale.
It went great from there.
Like, the company
was skyrocketing.
At one point, he had his store
next to Gucci and Louis Vuitton.
And he was really trying
to portray his brand
as a designer product.
Before that time
of putting the brand together,
there was nights I was sleepin'
in the back of my car.
I didn't have money to eat
at... at times.
It was hard.
But the company's worth about
$8 million right now.
He blew up a lot
on social media.
He loved to flaunt
that he had a lot of money.
And he got collaborations
with a lot of big-name rappers,
specifically, like, Dave East.
He was one rapper
who actually helped
catapult him up.
- The hats are available now.
I mean, you can go
to the website.
It got the Mazini page
up on the 'gram.
Fabolous is another one
who helped catapult him up.
Nas, 50 Cent...
50 Cent is throwin'
out the dollar bills
to a group of deserving
fast food workers.
The entertainer teamed up
with Jay Mazini
for the epic surprise.
To see him with 50 Cent,
is what really
legitimized it for me.
I'm like,
"Yo, this guy is official."
That video sparked
so much attention
and got on the news.
And it literally got him
verified.
So when that happened,
he started to do it
over and over again.
Starts going to McDonald's.
He starts going to another
Checkers restaurant.
He does it another ten times,
which is...
Caused him to gain hundreds
of thousands of followers.
He was giving out
hundreds of thousands
of dollars in one night.
And it was being shared
across all platforms.
People eat that up.
That's viral content.
And I thought,
"This guy's gonna be huge.
"He's gonna be
one of the biggest
"Muslim entertainers
or creators," you know?
"This guy is gonna
be something else."
- It's gonna be all right.
Come here, come here.
- I hate to say it, but I knew
Jay Mazini was scamming
from the moment
I laid eyes on him.
And so I... I felt like
I had to take him down.
My name is Stephen Findeisen.
I run a YouTube channel
called Coffeezilla
where I investigate
and bust scams.
I uncovered a fraud
worth $4 billion.
This is the story of SafeMoon,
a crypto coin that millions...
I kind of settled
on investigating scams
'cause when I was a kid,
my mom had been scammed a lot,
my friends
had been scammed a lot.
I realize this is
a very unheard segment
of the population
who have been exploited.
And there's just not a lot
or people covering it.
I just want to make
the world a better place
by, hopefully, shining
some light on these scams.
- Sure.
I remember
somebody came to me and said,
"You gotta go check out
this guy.
"He's got
nearly a million followers.
And he's giving away money
all the time."
A drive-through customer
gave Nigel and his employees
10 grand apiece.
- I was just sayin'
to myself the whole time,
"Like, hold on,
I hope this is not a prank."
I just wanted to say
thank you, man, and...
From me and my crew members.
Just want to say thank you.
So take this all
with a grain of salt
because this is
all self-reported
by Jay Mazini,
real name Jebara Igbara.
But according to him,
he had hustled
a cologne and hat shop.
He had turned that
into penny stock investing,
which he turned
into a fashion brand
of himself.
- The company's worth
about $8 million right now.
- I think there's
an enormous pressure
that comes with success,
because you have
to keep it going.
Momentum doesn't
just keep happening.
You have to make it happen.
And so for Jay,
he started doing
these giveaways.
For the first 500 orders,
we'll be placing $1,000
in each order.
Minimum three products.
He would give away cash prizes
as part of the package.
So you would order
from Mazini Italy,
but you have to have a minimum
of, like, five orders.
This was a way for him to drive
more and more sales
to his business.
- This is gonna be
a mystery box.
Minimum order
of three Mazini products
in order to win what?
In order to win maybe $10,000,
maybe $20,000, maybe $30,000.
- Eventually, as he started
trying to drive
more and more sales,
he would offer
bigger and bigger sums.
- The next 500 orders,
I'll be placing in
$5,000 in each box.
For the next 1,000 orders,
I'll be placing in
$12,000 in each order.
Minimum order,
six Mazini Italy products.
For the next 800 people
to place an order
on the Mazini Italy site,
there'll be $40,000
in each order.
Minimum order
is ten Mazini Italy items.
How could he be giving
that amount of money away
just for selling clothes?
First time
I heard about Jay Mazini,
you know, it was a video
of him giving out money.
I started scrolling
through his profile
and I started seeing,
like, images of him,
like, showing himself
as a devout Muslim
who came up from rags to riches.
That was the story
that he painted.
And it was something that,
of course, inspires you.
Well, I haven't been
the best saver in my life.
And, of course,
when you're having a family
and you finally have
like, a good job,
you start having to think
about, you know,
the long-term future.
And that was always
behind my mind.
So I'm like,
"Okay, I want to really get
into investing and trading."
And I saw his post
that he created this academy
that teaches students
how to trade stocks.
Mazini Academy
was started in 2019.
And for about $2,000,
you could get
stock tips from Jay,
learn how to trade stocks,
learn how to invest wisely.
- Mazini Academy,
educating people
in stocks, Forex.
He used
the stock market to get rich.
And he wants, you know,
you to follow
in those footsteps.
And he said, of course,
"The first 100 people
who register will get..."
- $20,000 each too,
which accumulates to $2 million.
This is not a raffle.
It's more of a educational...
You're benefiting anyways.
- So I'm like,
"This is it for me.
"Let's... let's get in.
Let's get into the trading
and investing."
The academy is set up
through a medium called Discord.
And the way it was set up
was very, very professional.
The classes were legitimate.
You can see the amount
of people online
in the Discord channel.
When Jay Mazini came on,
you saw the green lights
start lighting up
and more members
started coming on like,
"My God, Jay Mazini's on.
Let's go see him."
And he was, like, truly...
You could see
that celebrity in him.
Like, "Relax, people, he's...
He's just a person."
One day he comes on and says,
"Guys, I have a little bit
of a treat or a gift to you.
"What if I were to tell you
that there was a stock
"that you would trade
and you'd make
"a lot of money off today?
Do you wanna know what it is?"
People say, "Yes," "yes,"
"yes," "my God."
Girls heart-eye'd Jay Mazini.
And we're waiting for him,
and he took a pause
and he said, "PSV."
It was basically
a tanker company
that, like, holds oil.
And he's like,
"If you guys get in right now,
you'd get to be making
a lot of money."
So I take $4,000.
It was money that, you know,
me and my wife talked about,
we saved over a period of time.
And I put 99% of that money
into this stock.
And I think
for the first half an hour,
the stocks didn't go up.
Started going from $1.12,
$1.15, $1.23...
People were asking like,
"When should we sell?
When should we sell?"
We're taking his direction.
People believed in him.
And I remember after lunch
when the stocks
started going down,
he says, "Just...
Just the sharks
are comin' out later.
The sharks."
Whatever the hell that means,
"The sharks are comin' out."
I didn't even know
what that means.
But... but, basically,
he was doin' his best
to assure us that, you know,
we'll get out of this okay.
And it went under a dollar
at the end of that day.
And it just kept going
lower and lower.
And I think people,
at that point,
were really concerned
about Jay Mazini.
They were really thinkin'
at that point like,
"He left us out to dry."
He did mention to us,
"You're doing this
at your own risk."
He said that to us.
But...
I had a lot of faith
in that man.
I should have pulled out
at that point and said,
"Cut your losses, man.
You don't know shit about this...
About this stock."
"Get out."
I didn't get out.
Influence is powerful stuff.
You can inspire people
to improve themselves.
You can also inspire people
to give you money
based on the idea
you're gonna get them rich.
You could kind of tell
by his videos
that he was always going on
to the next big thing.
That's how he kind of pulled
more people in.
And that big thing
was Halal Capital.
"Halal" is something
that's permissible,
that's not against our faith.
In Islam, we have
a very strict way of investing.
You can't just invest
in anything.
So they would trust someone
who is Muslim
like Jay Mazini.
And they would put money
into his foundations
or his funds or whatever
investments he's doing,
because he was saying
that he's doing
the halal investments.
- I'm showin' the world
what Islam really is,
how we're raised to be.
I think that key word "halal"
just offered
a lot of, like, comfort
when you wanna invest.
In our belief, we have to stay
away from things that offer
gambling or alcohol.
Different things like that,
you know?
When Halal Capital was formed,
it was supposed to be
an investing company
started by Jay Mazini.
The first time I heard about it
was through my cousin.
He explained it to me
that Halal Capital
was buying merchandise, okay?
And they would...
They would buy it in bulk
and resell it,
that he was getting paid
on monthly flips.
So if you invest this much,
you would get this return.
If you invest a little bit more,
it's a higher return.
And he would just,
you know, show me
that they were getting returns
and saying,
"Hey, so far, so good."
This was, like, March of 2020.
Times were pretty tough
as far as business-wise.
And they were offering products
that people were short of.
They know that masks
are in short supply.
They knew hand sanitizer
was in short supply.
They have these items
and the hospitals needed them.
The stores needed them.
So we got a text message
letting us know
that there's
a monthly flip coming
which involved hand sanitizer.
So I thought
maybe it's a good idea
to take whatever
we have saved, um...
It would...
It's a substantial amount.
I'm gonna say it's a few
hundred thousand dollars.
We thought that this is...
You know, this is a homerun.
Yeah, the time
for payment would come.
We would message him
and he would say,
"Okay, you know,
"Ramadan celebration's
gonna hit this time.
"I'm sorry, but, you know,
there's gonna be
a little delay."
We understood.
We let that go.
So a week passes by
after our promised,
deadline of getting paid,
and no... we don't hear anything.
I start, like, asking questions.
I asked my cousin to see
if they got anything.
And I contact the... the mosque
because they also got in
as well.
It was the whole community.
It wasn't just our family.
At that time,
looking at his profile
and kind of trying
to get an idea
of who we're dealing with here,
it didn't make us feel too good
because we knew that he had
a different persona.
I did try
to confront Jay myself, okay?
I was like, "Hey, listen,
we invested a substantial
amount of money."
He gave me a story saying that...
That he had 18 duffel bags'
worth of...
Full of money,
and he got stuck up.
In what world do you walk around
carrying 18 duffle bags'
worth of cash?
You know, we...
We didn't believe it for a bit.
However, at that time,
we didn't want to go full force
and ruin his reputation.
Because we didn't want to risk
him losing more money
so we couldn't get paid.
So we kind of held our tongues.
And we held our stance, saying,
"Okay, let him do
what he needs to do
to sell his merchandise."
He still had
that whole Mazini Academy.
There's a real
skill set to being a scammer.
In a large way, the way he's
getting away with it is because
nobody with a big platform
is calling out what he's doing.
I started to believe that
he really scammed us.
That stock was filing
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
That's a key, important
information, Jay.
Like, you should have
told us, right?
You should have
at least told us,
"This company is going through
Chapter 11 proceedings.
They're gonna go bankrupt."
And that wasn't told to us.
He used the academy to,
what's called in the,
you know,
the financial industry,
a pump and dump.
And a pump and dump
is when someone has
a position in a stock,
meaning that they owned
a number of shares
in that stock.
And he basically convinced
the masses and his students
to invest in that stock,
which caused an up-tick
for that stock to go higher.
And once it hit
that desired point,
he can get out of his position.
That's what I believe
he did, right?
Because he understood
that we were new
and he could take advantage
of that emotion
and of his image.
Jay Mazini,
he was an online sensation.
He was out there
giving out money,
giving out prizes.
But that money
that he was giving out
at that time,
we had a feeling.
We had a feeling that
he was giving out our money.
- I'll be giving away
$10,000 ea...
This is just an example.
He was on Instagram Live,
paying people's rent...
Thank you so much.
I respect that.
I knew... I knew I won.
- Yeah, you won. God bless.
But he owed me, like, $1,000.
I was still doing business
with him at the time.
And it's like,
I'm supposed to be his friend.
So I was constantly
telling people
to watch out for Jay.
"Do not give him your money.
Do not trust him.
He's going to screw you over."
And no one ever believed me.
Everybody just kept
dismissing me as a lunatic,
and it drove me insane.
It was... it...
It drove me into depression.
I... you know, I... I tried
to recover on my own,
but when you don't have
that many friends
because they all sided with Jay,
there's not much to do.
But the Jay Mazini scam page
helped bring that message out.
A bunch of pages
popped up on Instagram
basically saying all the things
that he was saying was a lie.
They'd talk about
victim testimonials.
A lot of people started
coming out with Jay,
especially from the giveaways.
Of course, the reality was...
people weren't actually
getting the money.
There's no money.
So I started talking
to the scam page.
I was like,
"I have some stuff that...
Some content you could add
to your page, you know?"
Yo, Jay, stop lying to people.
Stop acting shady online.
Stop putting up this front,
because you are not
who you say you are.
I laid it out straight.
I said, "You know,
stop tryna present yourself
"like you're
this prophetic figure
"or somebody who deserves to be
"a... a power of influence at all,
"because you're a fake.
"And, eventually,
it's all gonna come
crashing down on you."
Back in the homeland,
if there was a dispute
with another family,
you would get your clan or tribe
to go talk
to members of their family.
And with Jay,
some people did go over
to speak to his family.
And it wasn't very successful.
Like, um, his dad just told them
that, you know,
"He kind of does his own thing.
He doesn't live here anymore."
It just... it gave us,
like, more worries
than... than anything positive.
Everybody wants
their pound of flesh.
When you feel
you've been victimized,
you... you want
to be made whole again.
And the way you do that
is by filing
usually a lawsuit
against that person.
And in this case,
Jay's family was getting
roped into this mess
through a civil suit.
My name is Jeremy Feigenbaum.
The firm has dealt with a number
of high-profile individuals,
probably the most famous
of which would be Anna Delvey.
Delvey, whose real name
is Anna Sorokin
is a scam artist.
Overnight, a New York City jury
finding socialite Anna Sorokin,
the so-called "Soho Grifter,"
guilty on eight counts
including grand larceny,
attempted grand larceny,
and theft of services.
Charisma is a huge,
huge factor in all of this.
The reason she was able
to be Anna Delvey
is because she had such
immense levels of charisma,
where you just couldn't help
but wanna talk with her
and become her friend.
Anna and Jay, many similarities
to how they operate,
in my opinion.
I first heard about Jay
when Jay and his family
came to us
with respect to claims
that were being made
against him.
From allegations about
people not getting
the types of packages
that he promised,
or gifts that he said
he would send...
Ain't nothin'.
Knew nothin'
wasn't gonna be in here.
To people investing their cash
and the money wasn't returned
when requested.
Some of the individuals
involved with that
were very angry
at what they believed
Jay had done
with some their cash.
I... I just don't know
what he thought
was gonna happen.
Like, there was no consequences
goin' through his mind saying,
"Okay, I'm just gonna
rob these people
and now I'll just
sail into the sunset"?
I mean, of course,
we want our money back.
But I personally,
I just wanna see
justice being served, right?
Jay's family
came to us, obviously,
fairly distressed and upset
about what was going on.
The plaintiffs
alleged direct fraud
against Jay himself.
And then against the family,
they alleged aiding
and abetting.
And they were, obviously,
very much wanting
to protect Jay
and themselves rightfully.
And I think
they wanted to figure out
what exactly was going on.
The academy
was becoming very toxic.
We all lost a lot of money
and we need an explanation.
We need to talk...
Talk this through.
And, um, Jay Mazini
never showed up,
never explained to us
what happened.
And that's when I started
devising a plan
on how we could bring
this person to justice.
Started looking into what
we could do with the SCC.
I went on the SCC website
and I filled out a complaint.
Nobody took action,
and at this point, like,
the more he's able
to continue this,
the more people were scammed.
- I'll be placin' in
$40,000 in each order.
100 people, $40,000?
Your clothes are gonna cost,
like, what, 150 bucks, $100?
You're givin' out $40,000...
How does that make sense?
He was getting desperate.
I think he just kept digging
himself a bigger hole.
And that's why
those scams became...
They were more, like,
important to him.
I think with Jay,
you did see an escalation.
I was on the phone a lot
talking to the various victims
of Jay.
When I first started,
it was all about
the giveaway scams.
And then he would try
to start up some new schemes.
- Regarding the Mazini Academy,
I've already selected ten people
which I'll be giving
$5,000 each to
- which accumulates...
- But he was pivoting
almost as fast
as I could report on it.
- Now, I'll be starting up
a new campaign.
He started talking
a lot about crypto currencies.
Specifically, he wanted
to buy it from the fans.
He told people
that he was going to buy
Bitcoin from them
for 5%-10% over market value.
And the reason
he was gonna do this
is because he wanted to buy
so much of it
that crypto exchanges
literally wouldn't let him
buy so much.
Once Jay got someone
who was willing
to buy him some Bitcoin,
he'd say, "Just send me
the Bitcoin first
"and I will send you
the wire same day.
It'll just take a little bit."
So pretty quickly,
these wires
didn't actually get through.
And people realized
they had joined the list
of Jay's victims,
and they got in touch with me.
He said,"
I sent your account 500,000.
Go check your account
I sent you the confirmation."
Two, three days later,
there's nothing.
There's no money.
There's nothing.
The confirmation's
a made-up number.
I'm hoping to God
he rots in jail.
Jay was so shameless.
He would show them
his passport, his ID.
He would show them
it's not a scam.
Who shows their passport
to somebody
when they're about to allegedly
fake a wire transfer?
That's where I realized,
"Well, this is almost
certainly another crime."
You can't fake a wire transfer.
Coffeezilla really did
great detective work
on Jay Mazini
and catapulted the attention
onto the scam page.
It started blowing up in views.
And it was...
It got so much attention.
Because of how popular
it was getting,
when you would search
"Jay Mazini,"
right underneath it would say
"Jay Mazini scam."
And he hated it
because he was so used
to everybody supporting him.
And now all of a sudden,
everyone's against him.
- Scammin' how? Scammin' how?
I got a clothes line.
I got an academy.
We sell clothes.
We teach stocks.
So I was a
heavy supporter of this page.
And, it wasn't me,
but I thought it would be funny
to spread a rumor
that it was me.
MJ was one
of the people I spoke to.
Jay Mazini and him have a past.
They went to school together.
And he would always kind of
make fun of Jay,
tease Jay.
And MJ started to tell
Jay Mazini
that he actually ran
the scam page...
The thing that was ruining
Jay Mazini's life.
Jay Mazini was under
a lot of pressure.
He started to get
really paranoid.
Reportedly,
he was hiring bodyguards
for $7,000 a week,
trying to ensure
a crumbling sense of security.
- Fake allegations.
Fake accusations.
Try to tarnish me.
You can't tarnish greatness.
You can't curse
what God blessed.
You can see his ego
bumping up against
all the allegations
that were starting to come out
around this time.
Like,
"You can't tarnish greatness."
That's who Jay thought
of himself as.
Like, he really thought
he was great.
And he thought
he was above the rules.
You disrespected us.
You basically
threatened people that,
"If you guys say this is a scam,
you're kicked out.
You're gone."
So he tried to silence people.
And I'm like, "You're...
You're not gonna silence me.
"You're not gonna silence
the people
that lost this money.
Like, it's on now."
It was getting so much traction.
People were starting
to follow the page.
We're getting new people
every single day
with new stories.
Everybody would share
their story
and how they lost money
with Jay.
So the scam page was destroying
Jay's reputation,
his authenticity,
his trust with his audience.
He was literally spiraling
out of control.
And, I enjoyed
every minute of it.
So as things started heating up,
Jay disables
his own Instagram account.
When you shut down your page,
it's like closing your shop.
Your entire income stream stops
in the case of someone like Jay.
That was the turning point
where I realized
that things were starting
to get to him.
Then things went
to a whole other level.
The Jay Mazini scam page
was ruining his reputation
so much.
And so many people
in the community
started talking about it.
And Jay believed that
I was running the page.
It was a joke,
but people
really took it seriously.
So it's 2:00 a.m.
in the morning.
I get a friendly phone call
from Jay Mazini.
I was like...
Know what? All right.
I'll meet up with you.
So I went to Edgewater,
parked my car,
and then I saw Jay.
I was like... I haven't seen him
in, like, almost three years.
I was like,
"Hey, what's up, man?
You got fat there, buddy.
How's it goin'?"
He goes, "It's good, man."
Jump into the car.
We start drivin'.
And I turn to him,
I'm like, "Yo, listen.
"What's goin' on?
"What's all this,
like, scams, money?
"You pissed off
a lot of Muslims.
So what happened? Tell me."
He goes,
"Nah, man, it wasn't me.
"I swear to God.
I'm just tryna like,
"you know, raise a family.
"Like, I got a son coming soon.
Like, I'm just tryna get
my stuff together."
We finally get to the 7-Eleven.
You know, I... I wasn't
looking behind me,
but the door opens.
I look back and I'm just like,
"Who the hell are these guys?"
It's just two Black men
with hoodies on.
And then he starts driving off.
And he goes, "Don't worry.
We're not gonna hurt you."
I was like, "Really? Really?
You... you're not gonna hurt me?
Who are these guys?"
I was like...
I was like,
"Yo, what's your name, buddy?
We good? You don't want
to shake my hand."
I was like, "You don't want
to shake my hand?
"You don't want
to shake my hand?
Okay."
At that point,
I have to strategize.
What am I gonna do?
These guys have me in the car.
So as soon as we pulled up
to Chase Bank,
I pop the door open and I run.
Start running like I'm running
the race of my life right now.
I made a quick left,
saw a alleyway.
But it was a dead end.
"What do I do? What do I do?"
I see a staircase.
I'm like, "Cool. Staircase."
I run up the staircase.
It's a frickin' balcony.
I... I made a jump.
I jumped from the second floor.
Unfortunately,
I sprained my ankle.
I couldn't run anymore.
Got jumped by both guys
right there
in the middle of the street.
They forced me
to the back seat of the car.
He says,
"Where's your phone, man?"
I was like,
"You want my phone?"
They wanted my phone
because they believed
that I was running
the Jay Mazini scam page.
I gave him my phone.
I let him take the password.
Even through all that,
they still couldn't get the page
because I was never in charge
of the page.
He goes, "All right.
We'll see about that."
He's driving me to Passaic.
And he goes
and he picks up another man.
This is pretty much the man
that they've hired
to beat the page out of me.
They take me to a basement.
And they strip me down
to everything.
I was, like, completely naked.
And this guy's got a machete
up to my neck.
He starts punching me
in the head
and, like, yelling at me.
Like, Arabic slurs.
He's like, "We would kill you
from where we come from."
He's like, "Where's the page?"
I'm like, "I'm telling you,
I don't have it."
And Jay's
just sitting there laughing
like he thinks it's funny.
He goes, "All right, you ready?
I'm gonna punch you.
Are you ready?"
I was like,
"Dude, just freakin' do it.
"I've been punched enough.
Like, I don't...
"I don't even feel pain
at this point.
Just freakin' do it already."
Gives me a punch.
And he thinks that, like,
it really hurt me.
But when I took the punch,
I kind of pretended
to cry a little bit
and I actually made him
feel bad for me.
He was like, "You know what?
"That's... that's enough, man.
We're done.
Just... just let him go."
He dropped me in Edgewater
and forced me
to limp back to my car.
What they did to me
is... is, like, despicable,
and there's no other words
to explain
what was going through my head.
And though... and I... I'm sorry,
but I'm not a gangsta
who's gonna come
and fire back at you.
I'm gonna...
Gonna do the right thing
and go to the police.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's true.
Jay Mazini has been arrested.
And not for the reason
you think.
Honestly,
that was a surprise to us,
what he was arrested for...
For kidnapping and beating.
After doing that video
with 50 Cent,
I think he wanted
to kind of take on
a little bit more
of a gangster type
of, like, persona.
So that was
a little bit shocking.
But at the same time,
afterwards, it made sense.
- You know?
- But he was arrested.
We watched every moment of that
on the New Jersey state website.
It was so relieving
to see this guy
in an orange jumpsuit, my God.
On one hand, you have
to be highly intelligent
to accomplish
some of these things
that these influencers
have done.
But at the same time,
to sometimes act in a manner
that's so contrary
to your interest,
it's baffling.
How did you see this going?
You kidnap someone,
more likely than not,
they're probably gonna
go to the police.
And then you're gonna
have to deal with
those ramifications.
I just don't get it.
I couldn't believe it.
Obviously, I knew this guy
was a scammer.
I had no idea
he was capable of this.
So Jay Mazini's
getting arrested,
you would think
that would be the end of it.
But this story never stops.
So right as all that's
happening,
Jay Mazini's wife
was allegedly trying
to bribe MJ to recant his story.
And I was hearing rumors
that he might take it.
So I got on the phone with him
and I recorded the call.
Yeah.
I've never shared this before.
Here we go.
- You're hearing me realize
for the first time
that MJ's about to change
his story
to try to get Jay Mazini out.
- The man got bribed!
Yeah.
It's unbelievable.
It was very clear at that point
that MJ was not after justice.
He was not after, you know,
making things right
for the victims.
He was out for himself
just like Jay was.
His angle was,
"Well, no, this is my shot.
This is my opportunity
to get everything I want."
I can get Coffeezilla
to get me clicks
and then I'm gonna get
on the news.
And then I'm gonna get
on a documentary.
I'm sure he's happy
to talk to you guys.
And now he's in jail
for accepting the bribe.
I'm being charged with bribery.
They're saying that I was paid
to change my statement.
The first statement that I gave
was right after the kidnapping.
And then after
some time passed by,
you know, I learned
some new information.
And I'm not gonna lie.
I was manipulated
by even my own family to... to...
To have a change of heart.
That was my biggest mistake.
In a complaint filed
in federal court in Brooklyn,
Jay Mazini, whose legal name
is Jebara Igbara,
was charged with wire fraud.
Jay Mazini ended up
pleading guilty
to the kidnapping charge,
which he's gonna serve
five years for.
On the Bitcoin
wire fraud charges,
he potentially could serve
15 to 30 years.
And then Jay Mazini's wife
was arrested too.
Her, along with other people,
are charged with trying to bribe
this guy right here
who got beat up.
- Okay. Good afternoon, all.
Mr. Jebara,
can you hear us and see us?
- Yes.
I watched Jay Mazini's
first court hearing.
He's in an orange jumpsuit,
crying, because
he's finally realizing
the magnitude of what he's done.
And... I don't know.
It was like the ending
of a really cathartic movie
or something,
where the... the music sweeps in
and you feel like
justice is finally
being served here.
So right now I'm flipping
through the voluminous
52-page complaint
that was asserted against
Jay and his family.
The allegations in here
are wide-ranging,
alleging everything from
fake stories of being robbed
to fraudulent promises
of fantastical returns
on investments
to embezzling funds
and using them
for personal purposes.
We got the case dismissed
against the family,
but Jay's got
a lot in front of him.
And given some of
these allegations,
the road that Jay has to travel
to get through
all of his legal troubles
is not short.
There's countless
victims of Jay Mazini.
The ones that we know of.
But there's a lot of people
that they don't want to come out
and say anything, right?
There... there's the people
that feel ashamed.
I mean, honestly,
everybody in the community
felt ashamed.
It transformed the community
from being so honest
with each other
and giving and caring
and to be like,
"Do I have to watch out
"for this person
to be the next person
that's looking
to take advantage?"
When you scam people,
it's never a good thing.
There's a reason why it's
against our faith in Islam
that you're not supposed to do
these types of things.
And I hope people
don't equate us all
to one man's actions, you know?
He was able
to really sell himself
on, you know,
the fact that he was
this pious Muslim.
- I want to show you guys
the real definition of Islam.
That stuck
a really strong chord with me.
I'm like, "You... you did this
to other people.
"You used faith,
"something
they're really devoted to,
and you take their money?"
That's why I was, like,
so kind of, like,
passionate about getting
this guy thrown in jail.
I think what's so compelling
about social media
is just how deeply involved
you can get
in someone's life
that can be a fake,
that can be not real.
It could be constructed.
This power of the influencer
is very, very real.
In my opinion,
social media enabled
this entire operation to occur.
It enabled Jay Mazini to exist.
Without social media,
he would have always just been
Jebara Igbara.
- If you're suffering
through a hardship
and you need help...
Somebody to uplift you,
somebody to give you hope,
somebody to, like...
To hold the light
at the end of the tunnel,
I wanted to be that person.
I didn't do it
for just the money.
I wanted to pave the way
for the youth
so they could have
something to look up to.
They could have hope.
This is, 10,000.
My God.
That's 10,000.
I'm serious.
No, you not.
- Here's what's amazing,
I can't help but smile
when he gives this woman $10,000
even though I know
where it came from.
That's just how powerful
this kind of content is.
- Hope everybody enjoys
this video.
Take care, you guys.