At the antipodes of the sometimes very bling-bling world of social networks, before becoming the “popess of influencers”, Magali Berdah sold mutual insurance through a brokerage company.
The company went bankrupt around ten years ago, leaving behind liabilities of 2.5 million euros. A “fraudulent bankruptcy”, estimated the public prosecutor, who decided to refer her to the Nice criminal court.
The hearing is scheduled to take place on Monday September 29. “We will plead for release, warns Me Franck de Vita, his lawyer, who hears well “obviously reserve the entire [ses] arguments in court”.
In the meantime, the “popess of influencers” says she is calm on the legal front, but much less so for her physical integrity.
She returns to the cyberharassment of which she is the victim against a backdrop of media-judicial war with the rapper Booba.
What are you accused of?
I am accused of bankruptcy, even though I was not even the manager, but a simple employee. Facts that go back ten years and which have absolutely nothing to do with what I do today. At the time, I was working for an insurance brokerage company. We sold mutual insurance to people. When the ANI law obliged employers to directly ensure the health of all their employees, the company lost most of its turnover overnight. With the additional contractual obligation to reimburse commissions paid for contracts of less than 2 years.
What you are saying is that there was no personal enrichment on your part in this affair?
No, absolutely not! And I will demonstrate it in court. Just know that what I am accused of is having received the sum of 22,000 euros from this company.
So you are calm as you approach this audience in Nice?
On a legal level, yes… Regarding my security, much less.
What do you mean?
Since the referral hearing last December, I have been receiving messages. People call me on social networks to tell me that they will be in Nice that day, that they will wait for me in court…
Where do you think these threats come from?
Since I was cyberharassed by the rapper Booba, I have had “the pirates”, his fan base, on my back.
You had filed a complaint against this cyberharassment. What was the outcome?
Twenty-eight people were arrested and referred to the Paris Criminal Court. The trial lasted three months. They were all sentenced, 14 of them to prison. Seven other people must in turn be tried in March 2025, this time for aggravated harassment of an anti-Semitic nature.
For you, does all this come from Booba?
Yes! A judicial investigation has also been opened. Booba was indicted for aggravated cyberharassment and placed under judicial supervision, which he also violated. Hence a new summons in January.
Why would he blame you?
I don’t know. I don’t know him. I’ve never seen him in my life. So he doesn’t know anything about me…
He makes serious accusations against you. He accuses you of fraudulent product placement and fraud…
He filed a complaint to this effect against me in 2022. Complaint which after investigation was dismissed as unfounded.
Cyberharassment, unfounded accusations, even threats, aren’t these the hallmarks of social networks?
It is a real scourge of social networks which have become a sort of open-air popular court and outlet for part of the population. People who, on the basis of fake news, threaten to stone you, to rape your children, to burn you alive… Because these are exactly the words that were used against me…
These networks are the foundation of your business, doesn’t that deter you?
No, precisely because I managed to get through it unlike others. I have to get things done. There are too many young people, people in general, who get lost because they are cyberbullied by their classmates, by work colleagues, or by complete strangers. When you push someone to suicide, it is simply criminal. However, today social networks do nothing to stop or try to regulate these abuses. Even me, at 42 years old, with the network that I have given my work, millions of followers, I received no response from these platforms when I called them for help because we were broadcasting in online my home address and that people were threatening to harm my daughters. The first thing I said to myself was how do these 12, 14 or 15 year old kids who are also cyberbullied on a daily basis do it?
Is this your new hobby horse?
It’s a fight that I want to fight because I’ve experienced it and obviously it affects me more than others.
And professionally? You met your fans on the stage of the Mogador theater in Paris on October 8, what will happen?
Surprise! All I can tell you is that there will be plenty of guests. And after this forced break, I intend to resume my place and launch season 2…
