Social Media Influencer Jailed on Extortion and Conspiracy Charges in France

The influencer Poupette Kenza was indicted on Sunday, July 7, 2024 for "attempted extortion in an organized gang" and "criminal conspiracy" by an investigating judge in Rouen. The Rouen prosecutor’s office announced that she was placed in pre-trial detention on Thursday, July 11, reports Le Monde.

Since February, the 24-year-old woman has been the target of a complaint filed by two people for an attempted extortion. On February 23, the Rouen prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation. The plaintiffs are Walid and his former business partner Caroline, a couple who drop their children off 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 then demanded 350,000 euros in compensation from the influencer. Otherwise, he would take revenge on Kenza. He is said to have met with the refusal of the companion of Allan. Her companion would have been beaten by the man who would have lost his son. The latter would have even shown Walid photos of a fractured skull and broken arms to prove the beating.

The Snapchat star’s social network would have redirected "Amadou" to the couple Walid and Caroline to "pay off his debts" by explaining to him that the woman owed him money, the publication believes to know. She had left the influencer agency she was working with, and had asked Caroline to take care of her partnerships. The relationship between the two women is said to have deteriorated after Caroline "took 350,000 euros of her income through foreign companies and refused to return it to her". "’Amadou’ would therefore have been sent to collect the debt and stop his desire for revenge. And the man is not joking. He demands that Walid pay a first sum of 200,000 euros within five days. He also provides him with a phone number to contact on the Signal app once he has raised the funds," reveals the daily. It would actually be a scenario imagined by the influencer with millions of subscribers. The couple provided a phone 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 an appointment 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 "grenade in working order". 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 incarcerated," reveals the author of the article. Messages found on "Amadou’s" phone lead the 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. The companion of Allan would have been brought before the Rouen courthouse, indicted in turn for "attempted extortion in an organized gang" and "criminal conspiracy" on Sunday, July 7, 2024.