The Toronto sisters with Kardashian-like Instagrams accused of bullying and blackmailing a Nigerian billionaire, Jyoti and Kiran Matharoo, have put out an apology video. Reading from a cell phone and standing beside her silent sister, a woman who appears to be Jyoti apologized and admitted to creating NaijaGistLive, a website allegedly used to enable the crimes the sisters are accused of.
“We created a platform called NaijaGistLive.com and .co where people can send in stories,” she said in the video. “Most stories were sent by close friends or associates of people being written about. The intention was not to hurt anyone or be malicious; the intention was not to extort anyone.”
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NaijaGistLive is a Nigerian celebrity gossip site the Matharoos allegedly owned and ran. NaijaGist.com, which the sisters’ alleged site was a knock-off of, reported that the Matharoos operated a “gossip mill where they manufacture stories” and “went as far as sleeping with big Nigerian politicians and recording their sex tape secretly to extort millions.”
The sisters each have tens of thousands of followers on social media, often posting photos on Instagram of lavish tropical vacations, money in various forms of currency, and in true faux-Kardashian style, a load of butt shots.
The man the Matharoo sisters were accused of attempting to blackmail with alleged evidence of him cheating on his wife, Femi Otedola, is a Nigerian man whose estimated net worth is $1.2 billion. Court documents also show that the sisters are accused of using their site “for the humiliation and cyber bullying of some 274 persons.”
“We apologize to Femi Otedola and his family, especially his wife and children and all the other petitioners… We haven’t received any money from this website,” Matharoo said in the video, both her and her sister dressed in all black clothing.
Matharoo ended the video by saying: “We promise not to say anything of the contrary to what we are saying now. We freely volunteered to make this video, and not under duress, ’cause we are aware of the damages done to people.”
The Matharoo sisters’ case is set for January 26.
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