French Influencers Charged for Fraudulent Copy Trading Scheme
Victims of a dubious copy trading scheme have initiated a class action suit in France, accusing several social media influencers of misleading them in losing money on NFT platforms and trading. The 102 victims accuse the couple of being part of the scammers involved in the ‘how to get rich’ campaign.
Denouncing the Influencers’ Role in Animoon
The lawsuit indicates that the French influencers portrayed Animoon, an NFT platform, as profitable. The denounced scam also cites the involvement of Jake Paul, a US resident, and brother of Logan Paul.
The suit identifies Marc and his spouse Nadé Blata as a misleading, fraudulent scheme orchestrated to advise millions of followers from their Instagram account. The revelation of the class action suit prompted Meta to delete the Instagram accounts.
Misleading Copy Trading Advice
The victims’ attorney submitted that the charges involved $6.3 million raised by Animoon without granting the shares to the investors. The lawyer added that Marc Blata relied upon the Telegram channel, where he issued copy-trading advice.
The suit alleges the defendant advised the subscribers on how to make shrewd financial investments. The suit identified that he informed the subscribers to copy the techniques for them to accomplish the self-proclaimed trading success.
The documents submitted before the French Court reveal an anonymous woman who admitted investing €500 anticipating to realize profits. Surprisingly, she would learn of the disappearance of her entire investment in the scam.
The Dubai-based couple form part of other parties suspected of perpetrating fraud. The documents filed to the court identify the victims pressed charges against ‘X’ representing a pseudo-identity to avoid naming the specific defendants.
The victims’ lawyer Jocelyn Ziegler lamented that the influencers violated the copy trading code since those who advise on reaping returns should be practicing traders.
Ziegler indicated that the defendant should have sought authorization from the French financial authorities. The lawyer dismissed assertions by the influencer that he lived in Dubai. Instead, Ziegler indicated that the influencer sold the copy trading scheme to French nationals. In particular, he wrote and spoke in French, hence the need to seek authorization from France authorities.
Multi Jurisdiction Cooperation Necessary to Avert Fraud
Ziegler expressed confidence in Dubai implementing the sanctions sought by the victims against the couple. He indicated that Dubai authorities were increasingly expressing concerns about the attitude displayed by foreign influencers. The submission by Ziegler indicated that Blata considered victims as a dump in several stories before the deletion of the Instagram accounts.
Ziegler added that Blata considered that Western authorities were targeting the influencers in the desire to tax them. The influencer dismissed the charges by indicating that only a few failed while thousands benefitted from his advice.
The lawsuit coincides with the efforts undertaken by France to eliminate online-based fraud. In particular, the Economy Minister admitted that French authorities observed that 60% of influencers’ platforms presented anomalies and fraud perpetrated by TV celebrities. The government official lamented that eliminating the scams is challenging since the influencers leveraged several platforms guided by varying legal systems.
David Anderson is a writer and researcher for Copy Trading Critic. David provides comprehensive news articles from the online trading world. He also writes reviews and analysis of copy trading platforms and strategies.