Downfall of mumfluencer accused of gangland extortion

Benchrif, who has been pregnant with her third child for at least five months, has been charged with “attempted extortion by an organized gang” and “criminal conspiracy.” If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison.

She has denied the accusation and tried to blame Liehrmann. He was arrested last Monday after flying back to France from Dubai to turn himself in. Charges have now also been brought against him.

Benchrif began building her following in 2019 while she was still living at home with her mother in Normandy. She initially did this on Snapchat and then expanded to Instagram, YouTube and X.

“'Poupette Kenza' is a kind of good friend who really resembles the young women who follow her,” Catherine Lejealle, a sociologist specializing in social media, told Le Monde.

“Unlike the inaccessible muses who appear decked out in every detail three days postpartum, she makes her subscribers feel less insecure about the upheaval of motherhood. The public wants to see something like that too.”

As Benchrif put it: “People like my content because I am myself, I show real life: a simple life, the reality of which I don't try to embellish.” I show how difficult my role as a mother can be sometimes, that not everything is rosy in my relationship.

But her problems were not limited to her often turbulent relationship with Liehrmann. With fame came controversy: she claimed to have been repeatedly harassed on the streets of Rouen, while social services threatened to take her son away amid allegations of mistreatment.

In April last year, she and her husband moved to Dubai, a popular base for many French influencers. But her problems continued.

In November she was fined €50,000 for promoting a teeth whitening product that was banned from sale in France because it contained too much hydrogen peroxide.

In May she was accused of anti-Semitism because of her statements about the Israeli war in Gaza. Two months later, she was criticized for encouraging young women to use an over-the-counter hay fever drug that causes weight gain in the hope of getting bigger breasts and a bigger butt.

A tanning salon she and her husband own in Rouen has also been closed several times, most recently last week, for violations of labor, health and safety regulations.

Such problems pale in comparison to the trouble Benchrif is now in over the extortion allegation. The trigger was an allegation by her former agent and friend, named in French media only as Caroline Y, that she and her husband Walid M were approached in February by a well-built stranger who apparently worked for Benchrif after she drove their child went to a kindergarten in Rouen.

The man, who called himself “Amadou,” claimed to be a former member of the French Foreign Legion and a member of a “Colombian cartel” and said he had come to collect money they owed Benchrif: he initially demanded 350,000 euros , but said he would settle for €200,000 and give them five days to get it done – otherwise…

The couple went to the police. When “Amadou” showed up near Rouen train station the following week to meet Walid M., expecting to receive some of the cash, he was arrested.

The man has now been identified as Éric Love O, 45, a Cameroon-born truck driver and security guard from Isère, hundreds of kilometers southeast.

Interviewed by police, “O” said he was “recruited by a girl in Dubai through social media to settle a dispute,” adding: “I didn't want to blackmail, but rather act as an intermediary between two people.” in conflict.”

Benchrif, who was picked up by police near Rouen as she drove to her friend's wedding in her Peugeot 208, initially denied the accusation and blamed her husband.

Benchrif and Liehrmann moved to Dubai in April

POUPEETTTE/INSTAGRAM

Confronted with “O's” statement – and with recordings of their conversation on Signal, a messaging app – she reportedly admitted to hiring him, but insisted he was a “trusted mediator,” adding adding: “I didn't tell him to make threats, I told him that he had to get the money back in the best way and without violence.”

Now Benchrif has been silenced and, through her imprisonment, prevented from giving fans their own take on the affair. Her lawyers said last week that her client “denies having played the role attributed to her in this case” and “that, on the contrary, she was defrauded of a large sum of money.”