Magali Berdah was acquitted on Monday by the Nice criminal court in a bankruptcy case when she was an insurance broker around ten years ago, before becoming the “popess of influencers”. During the trial at the end of September, the prosecution had nevertheless requested 18 months in prison against this social media figure, including six prison sentences, as well as a permanent ban from managing a company.
The case concerns the brokerage company BA & CO, created in 2013 by a childhood friend of Magali Berdah, taken over in March 2014 by the latter’s mother then placed in compulsory liquidation in 2015, with liabilities estimated at nearly 2.5 million euros.
Unclear liquidity
The investigation revealed that between 2014 and 2015, the very vague accounting of BA & CO indicated a total of 80,000 euros taken in cash without justification, while 600,000 euros had passed through an account opened in the name of a secretary to circumvent a freeze of assets.
Intended to pay salaries, this account also contains unexplained luxury expenses (hotels in Monaco, clothes, chocolates, etc.), for a total amount of 27,000 euros. Very combative at the hearing, Magali Berdah recognized a certain permeability between her personal finances and the secretary’s account.
Abuse of weakness
In 2019, she was convicted of abuse of weakness for borrowing these funds from a man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, even though she claims to have repaid everything, including interest. But the investigation into the bankruptcy of BA & CO did not demonstrate that Magali Berdah was the de facto manager of the company, as the prosecution claimed.
Thus, the police did not establish who had power of attorney over the secretary’s account, nor did they include in the file the 63 checks issued from this account on which they wrote that they recognized the signature of Magali Berdah.
A condemned mother and a Booba in history
“A criminal case is facts and law. There, we wanted a person. We wanted Magali Berdah. Maybe because we said to ourselves that it was solvent, maybe because somewhere, it was a trophy. The court has set the record straight,” responded his lawyer, Me Franck De Vita.
Only his mother, legal manager at the end of BA & CO and as such already sentenced by the criminal court to repay more than two million euros, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Magali Berdah rose to notoriety in 2017, with the creation of Shauna Events, an agency specializing in connecting brands and influencers.
Her activity was undermined in 2022, when rapper Booba accused her of deceptive commercial practices. The investigation against her was dismissed, while Booba was indicted for aggravated online moral harassment and 28 harassing Internet users were convicted in March. If Shauna Events is currently in difficulty, Magali Berdah, 42, recently announced the launch of an international agency on the same model.
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