Justice continues to look into the war between rapper Booba and influencer Magali Berdah. The Grasse public prosecutor’s office (Alpes-Maritimes) opened an investigation after the complaint filed by Ebinds Yaffa, the rapper’s real name, for “misleading commercial practices” and “organized gang scam”, learned franceinfo from the prosecution on Wednesday September 7. This complaint, filed against X on July 28, is actually aimed at the society of the “high priestess” of reality TV, Shauna Events, domiciled in Antibes. The city police station was in charge of the investigation. “We are delighted to see that the elements denounced will give rise to an investigation”reacts one of Booba’s lawyers, Ivan Terel.
>> “Scams, money and politics: the real business of influencers”, watch “Complément d’Enquête” broadcast Thursday, September 8 on France 2
Another complaint from the rapper, targeting ex-reality TV candidate Marc Oceane Singainy Tevanin, aka Marc Blata, was transmitted to the parquet floor of Pontoise, territorially competent, specifies the parquet floor of Grasse. Booba also accuses the influencer of “deceptive business practices” and “organized gang scam” for its trading and cryptocurrency activities (NFT – non-fungible tokens)
At the end of June, the self-proclaimed “Duke of Boulogne”, based in Miami (Florida), initiated a movement on Twitter “to denounce the abuses committed by influencers promoting online scams”, recalls the text of the complaint, which the magazine “Complément d’Enquête” was able to consult. With the hashtag #Influvoleurs and the opening of a mailbox of the same name, the rapper has collected dozens of testimonials from consumers who feel aggrieved.
In these messages, which “Complément d’Enquête” has read, these buyers claim, with supporting invoices, to have ordered items with promotional codes from influencers working for Shauna Events and to have never received a package or seen their money, despite several follow-up emails. If, however, the product was delivered to them, it was a counterfeit produced in Asia, available on the Alieexpress site at a price significantly lower than that offered by the influencer, assure these buyers.
“I will never see my order or my money back. I am alone with two children and the amount may seem ridiculous but I am really disgusted that my money was stolen!”, testifies for example a buyer who had ordered a foundation at 23.99 euros via an influencer. If the amounts involved are generally less than 100 euros, some reach pretty sums, like these Playstation 5s sold for 700 euros and never arrived at their destination.
According to Booba’s complaint, “there appears to be a complex and organized scam system, centralized by the company Shauna Events”, “system fed by the passivity of social networks and particularly Instagram and Snapshat used by influencers to promote scams”. For the complainant, “the intentional element of the offenses is beyond doubt” in that influencers “do not explain their sponsorship and do not ensure the veracity of the promotional offers they convey”.
The concept of “organized gang”, an aggravating circumstance of the offense of fraud, is justified, still according to the complaint, by the “hierarchical link between the legal entity – Shauna Events – and the influencers acting on its behalf”.
In its defence, the management of Shauna Events, which has 60 employees, swear in Release “from now on end all collaborations with influencers yielding to identified deceptions” and highlights the need to regulate this new profession.
Asked by franceinfo about the opening of an investigation, Magali Berdah’s lawyer, Antonin Gravelin-Rodriguez, did not “no comment to make at this stage. If Magali Berdah and her company have to respond in this context, they will do so in full transparencyemphasizes his advice. This will remove all suspicion and slander against these two people, physical and legal.”
For several months, Magali Berdah has been accusing Booba of harassment and has obtained the opening of an investigation. This has been open to the National Pole for the Fight against Online Hate of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office since June 1, in particular for “death threat, harassment by means of electronic communication, public insult on the grounds of origin and sex “.
In a press release, mid-July, the influencer accused the rapper of targeting her on social networks for several months “by false and humiliating publications”. “Since then, I have suffered mass online harassment”with thousands of daily messages, she confided. “It’s no longer a life, I haven’t slept for three nights. I’m just crying, I want it to stop”she also declared to the Parisian.