Where is Jay Mazini Now? We discuss a controversial social media influencer after the release of Hulu’s The Age of Influence.
Social media has a lot to answer for. And let’s face it, so do influencers.
As far as I can gather, an influencer is someone that has managed to gather a large, or even not-so-large, audience on various social platforms and can use their reach to promote or sell their audience, products, or services. Said product usually rewards the influencer with money or product, and the more products, the better.
However, influencers know that the bigger the audience, the more likely they are to get products and sponsors, so the game is to get more subscribers, and often that means producing consistent and entertaining content, and the more people who watch, the better.
There has been recent controversy with a prank channel in the UK and a content maker arrested for causing chaos through their uploads, including wandering into people’s houses and stealing a dog, so you can see that the influencer trying to gain attention can be problematic.
Hulu has recently dropped a new six-part documentary, The Age of the Influence, which takes a deep dive into this phenomenon.
One of the subjects is Jay Mazini, and the story behind his rise to influencer power is quite astounding, so this article will hopefully help explain exactly who Jay Mazini is.
Who is Jay Mazini?
Jay Mazini was the name adopted by Jebara Igbara, a New Jersey entrepreneur who decided that he would invent a new persona on social media. His idea was to promote himself as a social media philanthropist to secure a position of fame and wealth.
Initially, he would start a YouTube channel and upload prank videos, but his style of comedy was, of course, designed to be controversial, including pretending to be a terrorist on a New York subway and impersonating a police officer.
He would be prosecuted for these pranks, and eventually, YouTube would suspend his channel.
It was his new project, though, in 2019 that would kick-start Igbara’s influencer activity.
What did Jay Mazini do?
Igbara, working under the name Jay Mazini, would embark on a series of projects, including cryptocurrency, merchandising, and alleged philanthropic activity online, using his followers as a source of income. He would set up a company and use the influence gained from his Instagram profile on New York’s Muslim-American community to receive millions of dollars from them.
However, it would not be long before the cracks in Igbaro’s plans would start to show.
Igbara would be charged with various counts of money laundering and wire fraud, money that he had conned from his followers on social media, who thought they were investing their hard-earned cash.
Igbara would spend the money on a luxury lifestyle for himself, not investing the money he received, and would upload videos of himself giving money to people and hanging out with rap artists.
However, people were beginning to wonder about their investments. It seemed that no payouts were made, the money was running out, and Igbara had to raise the stakes to keep up.
As the desperation of Igbara’s situation grew, and he faced more scrutiny for his activities, things spiraled out of control when he kidnapped and beat a man that had accused him of fraud online.
In November 2022, a press statement from the United States Attorney’s Office was released.
It stated that Igbara “admitted to leveraging his Instagram popularity to prey upon innocent investors and steal at least $8 million of their hard-earned money.”
Igbara faces up to 20 years in prison for the fraud charges and is currently being held at the Passaic County Jail in connection with a brutal kidnapping last year.
Who is the wife of Jay Mazini?
Joumana Danoun is the wife of Igbara. Although not much is known about her personal life, Mazini’s wife, Joumana Danoun, of Paterson, has been charged with the activities of Igbara, including conspiring to commit abduction, bribery, and witness tampering.
