Social Media Influencer Indicted for Extortion and Criminal Association in France

Poupette Kenza finds herself in the sights of justice again. It all started with a complaint filed by two people for an attempted extortion they had been victims of on the same day, which led to the opening of an investigation by the Rouen prosecutor’s office on February 23, 2024. The plaintiffs are Walid and Caroline, a couple who drop off their children at a school in Rouen. A certain "Amadou" approached them to reveal that he was part of a "Mexican cartel" whose son had been murdered on the orders "of the father of the Rouen influencer Poupette Kenza", reports Le Parisien. This man would then have demanded 350,000 euros in compensation from the influencer. Otherwise, he would take revenge on Kenza. He would have met the refusal of Allan’s companion. Her companion would have been beaten by the man who would have lost his son. He would have even shown Walid photos of a fractured skull and broken arms to prove the beating.

Poupette Kenza would have redirected "Amadou" towards the couple Walid and Caroline to "pay off his debts" by explaining to him that the woman owed him money, believes the publication. The influencer with millions of subscribers had left the influencer agency she was working with, and had put Caroline in charge of her partnerships. The relationship between the two women would have deteriorated after Caroline had "taken 350,000 euros of her income through foreign companies and refused to return it to her". "’Amadou’ would therefore have been sent to recover the debt and stop his desire for revenge. And the man is not joking. He demands from Walid a payment of a first sum of 200,000 euros to be paid within five days. He also provides him with a phone number to contact on the Signal application once he has raised the funds," reveals the daily. It would actually be a scenario imagined by Poupette Kenza.

The couple provided a telephone line to the police. The latter would have managed to identify a "man known to the justice system: Éric Love O-.O". The couple would have set a meeting with him at the Rouen train station to hand over the requested sum. It was at this precise moment that the law enforcement officers would have arrested Amadou. During his arrest on February 28, he would have been in possession of a "functioning grenade". During his interrogation, he would have denied "any attempted extortion of the victims". However, he would have claimed "to have been hired to resolve a dispute between ’influencers’ over a sum of money, without making any threats or blackmail". "His employer would be an ’influencer in Dubai’ whose name he does not want to give and he would have accepted this mission, transmitted via social networks, because he hoped that it would help him make a career in the private security sector. On March 1, 2024, Éric Love O-O. was indicted and remanded in custody," reveals the author of the article. Messages found on "Amadou’s" phone lead investigators to the trail of Poupette Kenza.

Back in France, Kenza was subjected to an interrogation at the beginning of July. She was taken into custody on July 3. Allan’s companion would have been brought before the Rouen courthouse, indicted in turn for "attempted extortion in an organized gang" and "criminal association" by an investigating judge in Rouen and incarcerated, Sunday, July 7, 2024. Her lawyer Mourad Battikh is surprised at the "speed with which this information is coming out in the press as always when it comes to [his] client". He will add: "Nothing is spared her, not even respect for the secrecy of the investigation. Moreover, my client firmly contests any attempted extortion. She knew nothing of the methods of this man (Éric Love O-.O.), who was introduced to her by an intermediary and who promised her to settle her financial dispute quickly, professionally and without any physical threat, otherwise she would never have accepted his services".