Virginia
Jury sides with school system in suit accusing it of ignoring student’s sex assault claims
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A jury on Wednesday rejected a woman’s lawsuit seeking tens of millions of dollars from Virginia’s largest school system over allegations that she was raped multiple times as a middle schooler.
The woman, who was identified in court papers only by her initials, sued Fairfax County Public Schools under Title IX, a law that guarantees girls and women equal educational access. The lawsuit alleged school officials at Rachel Carson Middle School in Reston ignored her complaints that she endured sexual harassment and sexual assaults inside and outside of the school back in 2011 and 2012, when she was a seventh-grader.
Lawyers for the school system, though, argued that her claims were fabricated.
“She has tried to deceive you about what really happened,” Sona Rewari, a lawyer for the school board, told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday.
The school system’s lawyers introduced evidence at the monthlong trial of social media posts and text messages back from 2011 that seem to suggest B.R. and her alleged rapist — a 13-year-old eighth grader — were actually a boyfriend and girlfriend who willingly engaged in sex acts. In some of the messages, the plaintiff used “eye-wateringly graphic” language to express her interest in sexual encounters, Rewari told the jury during closings.
In dozens of the texts, B.R. flatly tells the boy “I love you” at a time when she now says she was being repeatedly raped by the boy after school at a bus stop.
On the witness stand, the plaintiff denied sending most of the messages. She also said that her attacker forced her to send some messages so that no one would believe her if she ever claimed to have been raped.
B.R., according to the school system, only claimed the sex was against her will after the boy broke up with her and after her mother discovered a salacious voicemail message on the girl’s phone and alerted school officials.
After the verdict was read, teachers and counselors at the school who had also been named as defendants in the case exchanged hugs amid tears.
The now-24-year-old plaintiff, meanwhile, left court visibly angry, followed by a small group of family and supporters.
The plaintiff’s allegations of exactly what happened to her evolved in the years since she first filed her lawsuit in 2019. At one point she amended the complaint to include allegations that she had been gang-raped multiple times in a utility closet at the school, possibly as some part of a sexual trafficking ring.
At trial, she never presented those allegations to the jury when her lawyer acknowledged that there was no good evidence that she had ever alerted school officials to the alleged rapes.
Lawyers for the school system said there was no evidence at all to support the notion that rapes had ever occurred.
Andrew Brenner, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, declined comment after the verdict on whether an appeal was planned. In a written statement, another of her lawyers, Alison Anderson, said, “While we are disappointed in the resulting verdict, B.R. showed tremendous courage and fortitude in fighting for justice for more than a decade.
The rules governing Title IX’s implementation and the rights of students to bring Title IX lawsuits have been a long subject of national debate. Last week the Biden administration made revisions undoing some changes that been implemented by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump. The new rules put forward by Biden have drawn praise from victims’ advocates, while Republicans said it erodes the rights of accused students.
While the trial dragged on for more than a month, the eight-person civil jury at U.S. District Court in Alexandria needed only a few hours of deliberation Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning before reaching a unanimous verdict rejecting all of her claims against all defendants.
New York
Instagram fraudster gets 7-year sentence for crypto scheme
NEW YORK (AP) — The former Instagram influencer known as “Jay Mazini” who swindled millions of dollars from online followers and a network of Muslims during the pandemic was sentenced to seven years in prison on Wednesday, prosecutors said.
Jebara Igbara, 28, of New Jersey, had pleaded guilty to fraud charges, admitting that he created a Ponzi scheme that involved cryptocurrency frauds netting around $8 million. Prosecutors say the money funded a decadent lifestyle that included luxury cars and a lot of gambling.
Exploiting the economic chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, Igbara leveraged connections in the Muslim community to gather investments for his firm Hallal Capital LLC, saying it would earn returns on stocks, and the reselling of electronics and personal protective equipment.
“Shamefully, he targeted his own religious community, taking advantage of their trust in him so he could spend and gamble their hard-earned money,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement.
As he networked with high-value investors locally, Igbara amplified his online persona, reaching around 1 million Instagram followers, prosecutors said.
He built a following in part by filming cash giveaways, often handing stacks of money to fast food workers or everyday people checking out at Walmart. In at least one video, he handed out cash alongside rapper 50 Cent.
Viewers got the impression he was so successful he could just give money away. And his online popularity earned him even more trust from fraud victims, prosecutors said.
By 2020, he attracted the ire of online sleuths who openly accused him of fraud, and cheered when he was arrested in 2021 on kidnapping charges. He later admitted in another case to kidnapping a potential witness to his frauds.
But many of his victims did turn to the FBI, according to court documents.
At least four people told FBI agents they sent over $100,000 in Bitcoin, on a promise of a cash wire transfer, according to court documents. One victim reported being scammed out of 50 Bitcoin, with Igbara first faking $2.56 million in a wire transfer, and later explaining away why the transfers hadn’t arrived.
Igbara addressed the people he ripped off ahead of his sentencing on Wednesday in a Brooklyn federal court.
“He apologized profusely to his victims,” lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman said following the sentencing Wednesday in Brooklyn.
Igbara’s seven-year sentence for fraud will run concurrently with five-year prison sentencing for the kidnapping and includes time served since 2021, his lawyer said.
As part of his sentence, Igbara is ordered to pay $10 million to his victims.
As for “Jay Mazini,” the Instagram and other social media accounts are mostly scrubbed. But the saga lives on in compilations on YouTube, and in an episode of the 2023 documentary series “ The Age of Influence.”
Jury sides with school system in suit accusing it of ignoring student’s sex assault claims
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A jury on Wednesday rejected a woman’s lawsuit seeking tens of millions of dollars from Virginia’s largest school system over allegations that she was raped multiple times as a middle schooler.
The woman, who was identified in court papers only by her initials, sued Fairfax County Public Schools under Title IX, a law that guarantees girls and women equal educational access. The lawsuit alleged school officials at Rachel Carson Middle School in Reston ignored her complaints that she endured sexual harassment and sexual assaults inside and outside of the school back in 2011 and 2012, when she was a seventh-grader.
Lawyers for the school system, though, argued that her claims were fabricated.
“She has tried to deceive you about what really happened,” Sona Rewari, a lawyer for the school board, told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday.
The school system’s lawyers introduced evidence at the monthlong trial of social media posts and text messages back from 2011 that seem to suggest B.R. and her alleged rapist — a 13-year-old eighth grader — were actually a boyfriend and girlfriend who willingly engaged in sex acts. In some of the messages, the plaintiff used “eye-wateringly graphic” language to express her interest in sexual encounters, Rewari told the jury during closings.
In dozens of the texts, B.R. flatly tells the boy “I love you” at a time when she now says she was being repeatedly raped by the boy after school at a bus stop.
On the witness stand, the plaintiff denied sending most of the messages. She also said that her attacker forced her to send some messages so that no one would believe her if she ever claimed to have been raped.
B.R., according to the school system, only claimed the sex was against her will after the boy broke up with her and after her mother discovered a salacious voicemail message on the girl’s phone and alerted school officials.
After the verdict was read, teachers and counselors at the school who had also been named as defendants in the case exchanged hugs amid tears.
The now-24-year-old plaintiff, meanwhile, left court visibly angry, followed by a small group of family and supporters.
The plaintiff’s allegations of exactly what happened to her evolved in the years since she first filed her lawsuit in 2019. At one point she amended the complaint to include allegations that she had been gang-raped multiple times in a utility closet at the school, possibly as some part of a sexual trafficking ring.
At trial, she never presented those allegations to the jury when her lawyer acknowledged that there was no good evidence that she had ever alerted school officials to the alleged rapes.
Lawyers for the school system said there was no evidence at all to support the notion that rapes had ever occurred.
Andrew Brenner, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, declined comment after the verdict on whether an appeal was planned. In a written statement, another of her lawyers, Alison Anderson, said, “While we are disappointed in the resulting verdict, B.R. showed tremendous courage and fortitude in fighting for justice for more than a decade.
The rules governing Title IX’s implementation and the rights of students to bring Title IX lawsuits have been a long subject of national debate. Last week the Biden administration made revisions undoing some changes that been implemented by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump. The new rules put forward by Biden have drawn praise from victims’ advocates, while Republicans said it erodes the rights of accused students.
While the trial dragged on for more than a month, the eight-person civil jury at U.S. District Court in Alexandria needed only a few hours of deliberation Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning before reaching a unanimous verdict rejecting all of her claims against all defendants.
New York
Instagram fraudster gets 7-year sentence for crypto scheme
NEW YORK (AP) — The former Instagram influencer known as “Jay Mazini” who swindled millions of dollars from online followers and a network of Muslims during the pandemic was sentenced to seven years in prison on Wednesday, prosecutors said.
Jebara Igbara, 28, of New Jersey, had pleaded guilty to fraud charges, admitting that he created a Ponzi scheme that involved cryptocurrency frauds netting around $8 million. Prosecutors say the money funded a decadent lifestyle that included luxury cars and a lot of gambling.
Exploiting the economic chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, Igbara leveraged connections in the Muslim community to gather investments for his firm Hallal Capital LLC, saying it would earn returns on stocks, and the reselling of electronics and personal protective equipment.
“Shamefully, he targeted his own religious community, taking advantage of their trust in him so he could spend and gamble their hard-earned money,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement.
As he networked with high-value investors locally, Igbara amplified his online persona, reaching around 1 million Instagram followers, prosecutors said.
He built a following in part by filming cash giveaways, often handing stacks of money to fast food workers or everyday people checking out at Walmart. In at least one video, he handed out cash alongside rapper 50 Cent.
Viewers got the impression he was so successful he could just give money away. And his online popularity earned him even more trust from fraud victims, prosecutors said.
By 2020, he attracted the ire of online sleuths who openly accused him of fraud, and cheered when he was arrested in 2021 on kidnapping charges. He later admitted in another case to kidnapping a potential witness to his frauds.
But many of his victims did turn to the FBI, according to court documents.
At least four people told FBI agents they sent over $100,000 in Bitcoin, on a promise of a cash wire transfer, according to court documents. One victim reported being scammed out of 50 Bitcoin, with Igbara first faking $2.56 million in a wire transfer, and later explaining away why the transfers hadn’t arrived.
Igbara addressed the people he ripped off ahead of his sentencing on Wednesday in a Brooklyn federal court.
“He apologized profusely to his victims,” lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman said following the sentencing Wednesday in Brooklyn.
Igbara’s seven-year sentence for fraud will run concurrently with five-year prison sentencing for the kidnapping and includes time served since 2021, his lawyer said.
As part of his sentence, Igbara is ordered to pay $10 million to his victims.
As for “Jay Mazini,” the Instagram and other social media accounts are mostly scrubbed. But the saga lives on in compilations on YouTube, and in an episode of the 2023 documentary series “ The Age of Influence.”
