Tunis (AFP)

On social networks, he was burning 500 euro bills.

Franco-Tunisian rapper Swagg Man is suspected of having scammed dozens of fans for at least 1.5 million euros, after being convicted earlier this week in a separate scam case.

His real name Iteb Zaibet, Swagg Man was arrested in July 2019 and detained in Tunisia for suspicious transfers of more than 6 million euros, paid to his Tunisian account from Switzerland.

He was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday for money laundering and fraud.

Several investigations are underway in Tunisia and France against this follower of "bling-bling", who had made himself known by tattooing the Louis Vuitton logo on his skull and who was leading the way in Miami, according to his photos published on Instagram.

Originally from Nice (south-eastern France), this 34-year-old man has cultivated the mystery of his origins, presenting himself as Rayan Sanchez, abandoned by a Tunisian Jewish mother and a Brazilian father, having lived in the streets .

But members of his family have since claimed he was born into a Franco-Tunisian family.

In the early 2010s, he created, using photos and music videos, his character of cynical high roller "under ecsta" who started as a DJ in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

He sings in particular that he has "too many tickets" and then has hundreds of thousands of subscribers on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

In an interview with Le Monde in 2015, he defined himself as "a buzz that lasts" and claims to have "made money through the Internet, then with real estate, in Miami and Dubai".

A year later, on the set of Canal Plus, he ensures that his goal is to show that "everyone can get by".

But in recent years, testimonials from fans claiming to have been scammed by Swagg Man have started pouring in, gathered by the French association Swagg Auxilium.

According to the latter, the dozens of alleged victims listed are mainly fans, aged 13 to 35, rather fragile, who had turned to their idol to ask him how to make a fortune.

Iteb Zaibet is accused of having made them dangle juicy investments.

He said he planned to build a mosque, an orphanage and a hotel with these funds.

- Intermediate -

Some have lodged a complaint but "the scams targeted different jurisdictions" making "almost impossible for the security services to gather enough elements within the framework of their investigations", explains Auxilium.

In 2019 and 2020, 21 alleged victims having accumulated a total damage of 1.5 million euros, therefore filed a complaint in Tunisia, told AFP one of their lawyers, Mohamed Ben Brahem.

Other complaints could be added, and the investigation has been completed for 19 complaints.

The sums extorted from French, Tunisians, Algerians or Canadians would range from a few thousand to several hundred thousand euros, he said.

A trial should open without delay, according to the Tunis prosecutor's office.

According to the rapper's lawyer, Me Mahdi Louzir, if there is any debt, they are unpaid "within the framework of commercial relations".

As for suspicious transfers, he assures us that these sums were intended to buy industrial machinery and Mr. Zaibet was only an intermediary.

A Swiss national, on the run, was also sentenced in this case according to the Tunisian prosecution.

Swagg Man is also the subject of an arrest warrant as part of a judicial investigation opened in France at the end of 2018, in particular for fraud, breach of trust, forgery, forgery and use of forgery, told AFP the Nanterre public prosecutor's office (center).

On social networks, its pages have been empty since a message published in 2019: "If this is my last photo, I will really miss you."

© 2021 AFP