Reality star and influencer Gabby Castillo was arrested on January the 3rd of 2022 for her
alleged affiliation with the Union Tepito gang from Mexico City. At the time of her arrest,
26-year-old Castillo had over 750,000 followers on Instagram, and reportedly had plans to begin
releasing music under the stage name Briela Sanz. The young woman was accused of fraud and aiding
in the trafficking of illicit substances, as well as taking compromising pictures of men
with the intention of blackmailing them. 35-year-old Jose Hareff Soto Jimenez was
arrested alongside Castillo. Police found hundreds of packages filled with illegal
substances in their vehicle. Castillo was known to be dating one of Union Tepito’s leaders,
Oscar Andres Flores Ramirez, who was serving a 20-year sentence for murder and organized crime
at the time she was apprehended. #9- Lorraine Cutier
On June the 30th of 2021, Lorraine Cutier, a 19-year-old influencer with over 100,000 followers
on Instagram, was arrested in Barueri, Brazil, on suspicion of selling illicit substances. She’d
initially been taken into custody a month prior to the June arrest, after law enforcement noticed
her acting nervously during a police patrol, but she was subsequently released on bail. However,
when Cutier moved without notifying the authorities, police raided her house,
apprehending both her and her boyfriend, Andres Luis Santos Almeida. Officers in charge of the
search discovered over 400 doses of stimulants and hallucinogens. Cutier was nicknamed “The
Kitty of Crackland '', an allusion to an area of Sao Paulo popular among traffickers and
drug users. She’d reportedly become known for carrying small packages containing individual
doses of illicit substances in her underwear. In August, she requested to await the trial at home,
in order to take care of her 9-month-old daughter. Her petition was denied. On April the 11th of
2022, Cutier was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay an $8,230 fine.
Her boyfriend received a lesser sentence of one year and eight months in an open prison regime.
#8-Twitter and Discord Scheme On December the 14th of 2022,
eight Texas influencers were criminally charged for a scheme in which they artificially inflated
the value of stocks, and then profited off the loss of the followers that trusted their advice.
Using a form of securities fraud known as “pump and dump”, the influencers invested in companies
and recommended their followers do the same, after which they’d sell high on the inflated stocks. The
perpetrators reportedly earned over $114 million through the predatory scheme. The Securities and
Exchange Commission filed charges against Perry Matlock, Edward Constantin, Thomas Cooperman,
Gary Deel, Mitchell Hennessey, Stefan Hrvatin, John Rybarcyzk, and Daniel Knight. While seven of
the defendants operated via Discord and Twitter, Knight co-hosted a podcast that helped boost his
co-conspirators’ reputations as expert investors. #7-Kayla Massa
New Jersey influencer Kayla Massa was arrested on February the 13th of 2020 for allegedly scamming
45 of her followers out of a total of $1 million, with the help of 9 other suspects. 22-year-old
Massa, who used the Instagram handle @Kayg0ldi, had amassed over 330,000 followers at the time
she began her criminal activity. The young woman reportedly posted social media stories encouraging
people to contact her if they wanted to make money quickly. When followers sent her DMs inquiring
about her proposition, she would convince them to provide her with their bank card information.
To lull victims into a false sense of security, Massa would have them empty their bank accounts
before requesting the information. Upon obtaining the sensitive info, she would deposit fraudulent
checks from real businesses into the accounts and quickly withdraw the money, leaving her victims
to deal with the consequences. Once the ruse was complete, she would block the account owners and
cut off all communication. On several occasions, the businesses inadvertently involved with the
fraud ended up suffering losses as well. #6-Bianca Cheah
40-year-old Bianca Cheah was arrested on December the 31st of 2021 in Sydney, Australia on suspicion
of committing fraud. Cheah, who boasted over 1.3 million followers on Instagram at the time, was
apprehended by Border Force officials after the plane she’d boarded in Los Angeles arrived at the
airport in Sydney. She was charged with publishing fake information to obtain an advantage,
an accusation related to her online business, Sporteluxe. Cheah had allegedly scammed investors
out of over $1 million by inflating Sporteluxe's profits in her financial reports. A week before
her arrest, Cheah had attempted to justify her absence from social media by telling her followers
she was choosing to spend more time with her son. #5-Ryan Taylor
On November the 23rd of 2020, British influencer Ryan Taylor was arrested for pushing a BMW
3-series into a river in Marbella, Spain. Taylor, aged 27, became popular on YouTube for his prank
and challenge videos. Leading up to the incident in question, he’d purchased the used car for $500
in order to record a video documenting a road trip to Spain. Accompanied by several friends,
Taylor filmed himself driving recklessly on roads, hitting a lamppost with the vehicle’s door,
and encouraging his companions to hang from the hood. The vehicle eventually broke down,
at which point the group removed the license plate from the car and pushed it into a Guadaiza river,
a location classified as a special conservation area. When video footage of the stunt surfaced,
Taylor was charged with crimes against the environment and road safety as well as document
forgery. This wasn’t the first time one of his videos got him in trouble with the law:
in 2018, he broke into the house used for the filming of the show
Big Brother, for which he was sentenced to 120 hours of community service.
#4-North Macedonian Influencer A 21-year-old social media influencer
from North Macedonia was arrested by Greek police on the island of Mykonos for trafficking
illicit substances into the country. Her identity wasn’t disclosed to the public,
and all photos that were published featured her face blurred. The young woman, the daughter of
an influential politician, was apprehended along with a known gang leader and his right-hand man,
both of whom were in their mid-30s. The group pretended to work as concierges for local hotels
in order to keep their whereabouts hidden from the authorities. Police confiscated over 437 tablets
of designer hallucinogens and over 700 grams of other illicit substances, as well as motorcycles
used in the trafficking operation, three phones, and over 2,000 euros. One of the gang’s customers,
a Lebanese DJ living in Athens who was in Mykonos for the summer, was also arrested but agreed to
cooperate with investigators. #3- Tammy Steffens
From 2016 until her arrest in July of 2018, fitness influencer Tammy Steffens created
369 social media accounts to cyber-stalk and harass six fellow content creators in Florida.
The 37-year-old repeatedly contacted her victims over the phone and on Instagram, issuing violent
threats, including a message in which she said she would “slice them up into little pieces”,
accompanied by a picture of a woman holding two knives. Steffens also filed two fake police
reports against a former business partner. She falsely accused the person, who wasn’t
identified to the public, of attempting to kidnap her daughter, and claimed they’d left a headless
doll on the porch of her home along with a note that said: “new toy for the kids”. In the end,
Steffens was arrested in Pasco County for fabricating evidence, as well as filing a
false police report. In September of 2019, she was sentenced to five years in prison.
Today's topic was requested by bonbonaro bonbonarov, Siiireehh and William Mars.
If you have any other topics you'd like to learn about, subscribe & let us know in the
comments section below. #2- Esra Ersoy
36-year-old Instagram influencer, Esra Ersoy, assaulted an underage boy in Mugla,
Turkey on August the 22nd of 2021. The victim, identified only by the initials SB,
was staying with his family in the resort city of Bodrum when Ersoy first knocked on
his door. SB’s parents had left the rented residence and the influencer
urged him to let her in, claiming she’d escaped from an abusive boyfriend who would beat both of
them if he found her. Once inside the house, Ersoy allegedly consumed illicit substances
and attempted to perform an intimate act on the unsuspecting victim. SB rejected her advances,
and Ersoy left the premises just as his mother arrived. The victim filed a complaint
against Ersoy, who was arrested on charges of assault of a minor. She denied the allegations,
initially telling police she’d only gone into the house to charge her phone. Ersoy
then claimed she’d fallen asleep and woken up with her dress torn, attempting to shift the blame and
criminal responsibility on SB. On March the 11th of 2022, however, she was sentenced to ten years
in prison for the crime. #1- Jenny Ambuila
Miami influencer Jenny Ambuila and her father, Omar, were charged with bribery and money
laundering on March the 29th of 2019. Police began investigating the social media celebrity after she
posted several pictures displaying her lavish lifestyle, including her white Porsche Cayenne
and red Lamborghini Huracan. Her father, who worked as a customs officer in Colombia’s National
Directorate of Taxes and Customs, regularly accepted bribes and used Ambuila as an accomplice.
Since 2012, he’d allegedly accepted millions of dollars in total in exchange for allowing
shipments to enter Colombia untaxed. A portion of the money was used to pay for Jenny’s tuition
at the University of Miami, as well as jewelry, designer clothes, vacations to Europe, and a VIP
pass to Coachella. During a family vacation to Colombia, authorities took the father-daughter
duo into custody. Jenny denied the charge against her, claiming she’d used the earnings from trading
services and an ice cream shop to pay for her luxurious lifestyle. After the arrests,
authorities granted Ambuila afforded house arrest, while her father remained behind bars.
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