Scamfluencers - ENCORE: Gossip Girls | Part 1

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

While we work on some brand-new episodes, we’re returning to one of our very first episodes about two jet-setting sisters from Canada, Kiran and Jyoti Matharoo. In 2016, a mysterious apology video surfaces online. In it, the sisters claim they’re the masterminds behind a vicious gossip site that’s been stirring up scandal and controversy in Nigeria. The only problem? The video is a fabrication — and the truth is even stranger.  Want to hang out with us IRL? Reserve your spot today for Wondery's Exhibit C: A True Crime Cruise: exhibitccruise.com/scamfluencers Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterListen to Scamfluencers on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/scamfluencers/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to scamfluencers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Apple podcasts. Hey everyone, last week we announced that Sarah and I are on the lineup for the first ever Wondery Exhibit C, A True Crime Cruise, which is sailing to the Bahamas in January of 2026. It is freezing here and I am so excited for a warm weather escape next winter. Sachi, same. And there are gonna be a ton of cool activities aboard,

like self-defense classes, panels with true crime experts, trivia nights, spa experiences. The list goes on. Cabins are on sale now, so please make sure you grab yours before they sell out because we are so excited to meet you all IRL. Head to exhibitseacruise.com for all the information. You can also find the link in the show notes.

Turning now to today's episode, we have an oldie but a goodie. While we work on some brand new episodes, including stories about Hollywood fraudsters and some nerdy gamer scammers, we're revisiting one of our favorite early episodes. We're returning to the story of two jet-setting sisters from Canada, Kieran and Jyothi Matharu, who found a life of luxury by dating billionaires. But their glamorous life takes a turn after a mysterious video is posted online.

In the video, the sisters claim to be the masterminds behind a vicious gossip site that stirred up scandal and controversy in Nigeria. The only problem? The video is a fabrication. When the video was recorded, Kiran and Jyothi were actually stranded in a foreign country after angering a billionaire who has the police in his pocket and an axe to grind against the sisters. Hi, Sarah.

Hey, Sachi. Hi, Sarah. Hey, Sachi. Okay, so as someone who is terminally online, I've become obsessed with the evolution of a very specific kind of public messaging, the celebrity apology. Do not get me started. I am obsessed with celebrity apologies. There's just such a wide variety of them. And now most of them are like posted on Instagram.

They involve the notes app and they always include the phrase do the work. And I'm curious if you have a favorite celebrity apology. I actually do have a favorite one and it's Morgan Wallen who is a country music star that I had never heard of until I found out he said the N-word, he posted on Instagram. He has like a baseball cap on with sunglasses

on the brim of his cap. So casual. And you're just kind of like, you're apologizing right now for something super serious. Yeah, his was brutal. A public apology plays a really big role in the story I'm actually gonna tell you today. And I just need to show it to you.

It's December 2016, and a video starts making the rounds on gossip sites in Nigeria. It's an apology video, but this isn't some PR-produced glossy mea culpa. There's something really off about it. We apologize to Femi Otidola and his family, especially his wife and children, and all the other petitioners. We created a platform called Nyjagistlive.com and.co.

Sarah, can you describe what you're seeing in the video? Okay, so I am seeing two girls, they have long, glossy black hair, you know, they have like tanned skin, and one is reading off a phone. It's a very strange video. And the two women in it are Kiran and Jyothi Matharu. They're sisters and socialites, and they're known for dating billionaires and posting pictures of themselves looking incredible all over the world.

Kind of like us. Yes, exactly like us. But this video is very much not fabulous. The sisters are in a hotel room near the airport in Lagos, Nigeria, and they're apologizing for running Nyja Gist Live, one of the most notorious gossip blogs in Nigeria. The blog has made explosive accusations about some of the richest people in the country. And for all we know, these claims are completely made up. Think of it as Nigerian de moi, but with even fewer boundaries. So the man they're apologizing to, Femi Otidola, is rich as hell. He's one of the

wealthiest people in Nigeria. He's also been a target of Nyjah Gist Live. Oh, and this is really important. Sarah, he's also Kieran target of NYJA GIST Live. Oh, and this is really important. Sarah, he's also Kieran's ex-boyfriend. Oh, okay. This is getting juicy. Yeah. And the man filming them is another guy who had been burned by NYJA GIST Live. And it's an absolutely brutal comment section. He's urging the sisters to fess up,

to admit on camera that they are the masterminds behind the blog. Okay, so are they actually the masterminds behind this blog? Because they don't really look Nigerian to me. Well that's what everyone's dying to know. And the truth is much darker and far more unbelievable than this confession video. You just realized your business needed to hire someone like yesterday. With Indeed, there's no need to stress.

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And I'm Sarah Haggian. And this is Scamfluencers. Come and give me your attention. I won't ever learn my lesson. Turn my speaker to 11. I feel like a'm a legend. To help make sense of all the gossip and the scandal, we went right to the source. I got to interview Jothi and Kiran about what actually went down and why they recorded that

confession video. And Sarah, this interview was so revealing. It made me see everything completely differently. This is a story about power, beauty, and influence. And at the heart of it all is one of my favorite things, gossip. This is part one of our two part series, Gossip Girls. The Mathreux Sister Story will take us to Lagos,

Paris, Venice, and the Maldives. But first, it begins at the Sherway Gardens Mall in Etobicoke, Ontario. Shut up. Canada's worst mall. No. Yeah. This story brings us to Etobicoke? Yeah.

Oh my god. Kieran sets the scene better than I can. Listen to this from our interview. So I used to work part-time, and that was in 2008 while we were still in college and I don't know I was really dressed up. I used to dress up a lot. I used to work at the store called Marciano. It was like a fashion store. They had a lot of fancy dresses and club dresses. So I used to wear that stuff to work. It's not exactly her dream job but it helps pay the bills. She and her older sister Jothi are both enrolled in the same two-year fashion business program

at Humber College. So even though Jothi is two years older than Kiran, they're often mistaken for twins. But they're different in a lot of ways. Kiran is a chess player. She gets good grades in science and math. Jothi is more interested in literature and history. Kiran often rocks the side part while Jothi parts her interested in literature and history. Kieran often rocks the side part, while Jyothi parts her hair right down the middle.

These are very important distinctions, but they're basically inseparable. After Jyothi graduated, she waited two years to start fashion school so that they could go together. And ever since high school, the sisters have loved dressing up. I mean, they were the ones rolling into homeroom, wearing halter tops, colored contacts, and high heels. I feel like I know and went to school

with this exact type of suburban girl. Yeah, they're so cool. When you're a late bloomer, you see them and you're like, I'm never gonna be a woman. Yeah, to be honest, I still sometimes feel like that. And I'm sure that their classmates may have given them a lot of side eye, but honestly, Jothi and Kieran do not give a single fuck. They go out to nightclubs like fluid or oxygen almost

every single night. Sarah, do you remember those clubs? Wasn't cool enough, go on. Okay, well, me neither. But the sisters were. We would party every day. We used to go out a lot. My dad always used to like lock us out. He would try to let us sleep in the car. Anything to make us stop going out. Nevertheless, they persisted. They persisted. And the girls have been focused on curating their aesthetic from the jump. Fashionable and untouchable. They know they're destined for something bigger. Bigger than Toronto, bigger than their sheltered upbringing in the loving but overbearing Indian Canadian family they have.

Not that I know anything about that. Even though this is years before influencer was a common term, Jyothi's got those instincts. She's constantly taking pictures on a disposable camera and she uploads them to Facebook every week. I used to call a selfie a close up. So when you take your camera and you take a picture, which I always used to take. You turned your camera around.

My caption was close up and now it's called a selfie. Wow. She was ahead of her time. Yes. So back to this one afternoon in the Marciano store in 2008. One day, some guy walked in and he was pretending to shop for his sister. And he was very handsome, very charming. That's Kieran talking about Chris. He's a Nigerian businessman. He's really fit and he dresses really well.

Like pea coats and scarves and fedoras. Just try to keep in mind, this is 2008, so all of that was like a dope look. He's incredibly confident, like almost too confident, and he makes her laugh. She likes that he's so different from the guys that they've been around in Toronto, you know, broke college guys.

Once a guy at a bar asked Jothi to pay for his beer because he couldn't pay for a beer and for parking. And Chris is very clearly not a deadbeat. So when he asks Kieran out, she says yes. And he really pursues her. He was always messaging me and saying, let's go out here and there. Like he wanted to go to clubs and dinners and stuff.

And I was always like, no, I'm not gonna really go out. So they start meeting for lunches. But like how romantic can lunch be, you know? Chris says he wants to spend more time with her, so he invites her to go on a trip to Atlanta. But she wants her sister Jothi to tag along. And Jothi, well, she just found out that the guy she's been dating for years had been cheating on her.

So she says, all right, what the hell, let's go to Atlanta. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, especially if they're this kind of unit. They trust each other. They're sisters. There's strength when it's two people saying yes to something. They could easily kind of get out of it, you know? Yeah.

I mean, listen, I would go too. The sisters tell their parents they're taking a girls trip to New York. And then they head off to Georgia instead. They've been waiting for their world to expand, and here's their chance. Here's Jothi. We've always been like risk takers where somebody says, hey, let's do this. We're like, okay, we'll say yes first and then think about it, like ask the questions later.

In Atlanta, Chris had invited a friend of his for Jothi. We're going to call him SD, and Kieran says he was a bit of a mystery at first. Jothi plays it cool, but she says it doesn't take long for Esti to charm her. So he ended up coming to the mall and everything I was like looking at, he would just buy it for me. I wasn't used to that.

Like someone spoiling me and giving me money to go shopping and things like that. Well then, a few weeks later, Esti invites them on another trip. They meet him in Florida, and Esti shows the sisters to his private plane, which they then take to Paris, and then to Athens, and finally to Nigeria.

Jothi says that the guys were eager to show these sheltered sisters the world. They go to fancy restaurants and shop at haute couture boutiques. It was just surreal, like so crazy. But I was just there taking pictures, pictures, pictures, pictures of everything. Kieran says that they are totally swept up in the moment. I think when you're in it, it's happening so fast that you're so excited that you

don't notice like how you're really feeling. You're just excited. And that's the only emotion you get. Yeah. I mean, if you're 21 years old, this is the coolest. Okay, forget if you're 21. This is the coolest thing at any age. This is the coolest thing that could happen to me at 31. For the sisters, the glamorous future they imagine for themselves is finally here. But who knows for how long?

At the last stop of their whirlwind trip, the sisters step off a private jet in Abuja, Nigeria. They walk along the tarmac lined with palm trees. It's hot as hell. And if it wasn't already clear that Estee was operating on a whole other level financially, Jothi says that it becomes pretty clear when they arrive in Nigeria. So there was like a bunch of G-Wagons that picked us up. So we get into the car, there's obviously drivers, he's not driving.

He's in the back with me in one car. She's with Chris in another car. And our luggage is riding in a different car. We're like, this is so crazy. They stay at Esti's house. It's this sprawling mansion, marble top to bottom. It has a piano room. On the estate, Esti keeps horses,

because he plays polo, obviously. A chef is ready to make spaghetti bolognese at a moment's notice. And of course, there's a pool. These girls got on this plane, hopped from country to country, ended up in Nigeria, and now they're on this compound

where there are horses and a chef? Yeah, shit's dope. Jothi says that the sisters love Nigeria right away. They made us feel really, really special. Like, I think Nigerians in general, they're very welcoming and they want you to, like, understand their culture. And we kind of are like that when we go somewhere, we try to learn a lot about the culture and They really appreciate that when Jothi and Karen get back home to Toronto They think of what an incredible life experience they just had and Jothi says that she doesn't expect anything more I was just thinking even if I never saw him again. That was the most amazing trip ever like So crazy so surreal but, he's definitely caught feelings.

Right away, he asks, when are you coming back? And two weeks later, the sisters are back in Lagos. You know, there's a universe where this story could have ended there. And like a story they tell their friends, like, oh, my God, so this guy came into Marciano. Anyway, super hot, super rich. He took us to his palace in Nigeria, and then we just kind of went home and never talked to him again.

It was a great experience. All right, but here's the thing. Obviously, Jothi knew Esti was rich, but now he tells his sisters that he's one of the richest men in all of Africa. His grandfather made several fortun fortune than oil and gas. This is old money passed down from generations. And with SD footing the bill,

the Mothrus begin a whole new life. One that will bring them money, influence, romance, and the attention of a whole lot of haters. So the sisters tell their parents that they got jobs as flight attendants on private jets. And then they make part-time homes for themselves in Lagos' luxury hotels. Sarah, what do you know about Lagos? I know it is one of the biggest cities, if not the biggest city in Africa, and that it

is like a real party city, beach town. Like any Nigerian I know who posts pictures visiting Lagos, I'm like, this place looks amazing. Yeah, it seems like fun as hell. And that's part of why Jyothi says that the sisters love it. There's no rules, everyone's just fun, there's something going on every night. And thanks to SD, the sisters are treated as VIPs. They settle into a new normal, a life of luxury. It's a life we were literally meant to have, but okay. Yeah, we were supposed to live like this.

Well, the sisters find that they're well-suited to run in circles with the wealthy, generous, and discreet. Here's what Kieran says. Because we're generally quiet people. Yeah. Like we kind of keep to ourselves, we'll whisper to each other, we're not like too loud. And I think a lot of men test you for that.

They want to know where you're comfortable to be taken. Jothi still posts pictures of their international travels, but the men she dates are never in them. And she takes care to protect their privacy and her own. She posts late to her blog and later to Instagram. So all these randos don't know where she is. And Kieran says... I know some people have unique things on, like, their planes or yachts.

So she would actually blur out things, change the color of the carpet. I would remove the tail number off aircrafts for sure. These men are private. They don't want their life out there like that. And you don't want to end up on a blog, like, you know, they want their privacy, so. That is pretty surprising, even though they are definitely posting for people to see how fabulous their lives are.

They do value privacy in a way that I wasn't really expecting. Yeah. And Jothi is the serial monogamist of the two. So she dates Estee for years. But Kieran is ready to leverage their connections to meet other interesting and wealthy men. So she gets subscriptions to business magazines, and she does her homework. I was always reading Forbes Africa. I can memorize people's faces and I know who the person is right away. So if I was at a party or something and I saw one of the guys

that was on the cover, I would just kind of make myself available. So he would approach me and it became a bit of a game. Okay, writing this down. These are good tips. Does she have any more that you asked her about in this? Well, with these connections comes more jet setting, designer shopping sprees, and luxury photo ops. It's great content for The Gram and their new lifestyle blog, Mattrapolitan. Thousands of people follow them, and brands come knocking with paid partnership opportunities.

So they've got a pretty good side hustle going. But their main source of income is the men they're dating. And they're living really well. Jothi and Esti eventually break up, but she finds new boyfriends, and Kiran plays the field. And the girls develop a presence in Nigeria. They're known as the Canadian Kardashians. Here, check out some Instagram posts from around this time, and let me know what you think.

They look like socialites. They look like rich, hot girls on Instagram that you wouldn't really think twice about, other than to be like, how did they get all that money? Yeah, but their blog is just one in Nigeria's vibrant online ecosystem. And you know what? Some people are not too welcoming to these outsider sisters. Hi, Georgia.

Hi, David. What do you think the world needs more of? Well, the world always needs more podcasts. Didn't you used to have a podcast? Not only did I used to have a podcast, Georgia, it's coming back. David Tennant does a podcast with, Season 3 is coming at ya. Okay, and who are your guests? Who are my guests?

What about Russell T. Davis? What about Jamila Jamil? What about Stanley the Tooch Toochie? So it's really just you hanging out with your mates then? Yeah. Come join me. David Tennant does a podcast with. Bye. At 24, I lost my narrative, or rather it was stolen from me. And the Monica Lewinsky that my friends and family knew was usurped by false narratives, callous jokes, and politics.

I would define reclaiming as to take back what was yours. Something you possess is lost or stolen, and ultimately you triumph in finding it again. So I think listeners can expect me to be chatting with folks, both recognizable and unrecognizable names, about the way that people have navigated roads to triumph. My hope is that people will finish an episode of Reclaiming and feel like they filled their tank up.

They connected with the people that I'm talking to and leave with maybe some nuggets that help them feel a little more hopeful. Follow Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Reclaiming early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. A few years into their new lives as glamorous socialites, Kieran and Jothi arrive at the launch of a new restaurant. It's on Victoria Island, a wealthy enclave off

the coast of Lagos. The restaurant is called Bazaar. And Kieran's been working with them as a consultant. She's kind of like a proto food influencer. So guests start arriving at the party around 11. And the crowds full of Nollywood actors, Afro pop stars and what some Nigerians refer to as Ajabotas. That means butter eaters in Yoruba. Rich kids. Tonight, there's a prince, the founder of a global news channel, and a Nigerian ambassador in the crowd. And the sisters are there to welcome them and mingle.

Wow, they have moved their way up. Yeah. And at this point in 2013, people know who their way up. Yeah. And at this point in 2013, people know who the sisters are. They pop up at all the hottest parties. And they're pretty hard to miss. They float around the party wearing the trinkets of their bougie lifestyles. Rolex, Gucci, and they even wear matching bright red lipstick. Kieran stops to talk to one of the guests, a blogger named Abiola Aloba. He wears these bright funky glasses and he's bald with a big bushy

beard. And Kieran is a delightful host. She leaves him with a great impression, so he writes as much in his blog. Sarah, can you read what he says about the sisters? Jyoti and Kieran, as usual, were perfect hostesses looking as gloriously stylish as usual. And at this time, blogging in Nigeria is pretty major. It's such a big deal that legit journalists like Abiola have left their traditional media jobs to run blogs of their own. And the most popular blogs are gossip sites. Everyone's reading them, and the comment sections are, you could say, lively.

When Abiola publishes this post, the comments come rolling in. One says, and brace yourself here, Sarah, their high point is that they only do orgies and anal sex, things Niger women don't usually do. I feel bad for these girls. Like this isn't their fault. No, they didn't do anything. And let me be clear here. The Mathur sisters say that everything published about them on these blogs is absolutely false. Specifically, Jyothi calls them disgusting lies. So just keep that in mind when you hear the quotes from this gossip column on a blog called The Capital. This column is brutal. Sarah, can you read this excerpt?

It says, quote, they fly to any part of the world, Monaco, London, Paris, inclusive to pleasure the loins and vanities of their super rich clients. Practically all the rich guys in Nigeria have spent time with them. Little wonder their names strike fear into the hearts of many rich married guys in Nigeria have spent time with them. Little wonder their names strike fear into the hearts of many rich married women in Nigeria."

I don't like how they're just these villains and these poor men can't resist these sisters. It's just so disgusting that they're getting blamed for these men acting out. Yeah, it's childish, basically. These are very childish things that you would say about adults. And the sisters say that a lot of it is just totally made up. In an email to us, Jothi writes, we have not, do not, and never will do any of these things. Nor did we ever need to do them

to get these men. And as you might imagine, the sisters are getting attention, which brings in a lot of customers to the restaurant where they're working, bizarre. But it's not exactly the attention they had hoped for. Kieran says that the owner of the restaurant mostly wants them to hang out in the VIP room. They wanted to make us like the face of the restaurant, but that just became more trouble for us

because like they just, guys were just coming there to just kind of introduce themselves, get our number or something. Okay, so this was kind of like, they, these people were using them as a type of mascot almost. Yeah, it's a bit of a double-edged sword here. And so, they part with the restaurant before long. But just as their dream of being restaurant moguls goes up in flames, the owner of Bazaar introduces them to one of the richest men they've ever met.

Someone who takes an intense interest in Kirin. And he'll end up altering the course of both sisters' lives. For better, and then for far, far worse. Kirin met Femi Otidola while hosting parties in Lagos' food and nightlife scene. Femi's an imposing man. He's in his 50s and slightly balding, with thick framed glasses. He's got a well-groomed salt and pepper beard, and he's usually dressed in a traditional Yoruba outfit, a loose-fitting shirt and slim-cut pants. His money comes from petroleum, and when Kieran meets him, he's worth more than a billion

dollars. With all that money he is not used to taking no for an answer. Here's Kieran. I told him outright that I'm dating someone else and I'm really like you know I'm not interested at this moment. It just made him go harder and he kept pursuing me and eventually I gave in. Oh and Femi is married. He's actually got a swanky $12 million yacht named the Nana after his wife. But that's not the only hiccup. Kieran says that Femi is flaky and paranoid. That he believes he's being surveilled by cops and the government. Which I mean, that one is actually kind of true.

In 2012, a video surfaced of him allegedly bribing a Nigerian politician. Femi was never charged because he claimed that actually he set up the sting to expose government corruption. Ah yes, classic tactic. Though I actually wasn't doing anything illegal. I pretended to so the government could be exposed. So you're welcome. It's a classic, classic move. And Kieran says that Femi rolls with a handful of security guards, and he uses an old Nokia phone because he doesn't want his email to be hacked. So he's a little eccentric, but Kieran

enjoys her time with Femi. And I should say, we reached out to Femi for a comment on his relationship with Kieran, and we didn't hear back. In 2013, Kieran breaks things out to Femi for comment on his relationship with Kiran and we didn't hear back. In 2013 Kiran breaks things off with Femi and starts dating someone else. She thinks that they part on good terms but little does she know Femi is stewing over it and that resentment is about to make the Mathur sisters even more famous and get them into a whole lot of trouble. Around that time that Kieran splits from Femi,

a new kind of gossip site takes hold in Lagos. It's more like a public message board, which means it can get pretty unhinged. It's called Nige Just Live. And let me tell you about this site, Sarah. It is messy. The publisher regularly posts explosive allegations about Lagos' rich and powerful. Who's neglecting their children? Who's

offering bribes to government officials? The site exposes damaging secrets, and it makes really serious allegations that could lead to real legal trouble. And this site is where a lot of gossip about the sisters is spreading, and people can't stop reading it. Because here's the thing, it operates differently from other gossip blogs in Nigeria. With other sites, wealthy people can usually threaten to have the publisher arrested or thrown in jail,

or worse, according to Jothi. But the publisher of Nyjagis Live is anonymous, which means there's just nobody to go after. Plus, the publisher doesn't moderate the comments, which are loaded with allegations against the wealthy and well-connected. Here's how Jothi describes it. It was just kind of whatever people want to write in the comments.

Free-flowing gossip, that's what it was. Like, no limits. But Jothi and Kieran aren't phased. Growing up, their extended family had a lot to say about how they dressed, how often they went out, the guys they dated. So they're used to tuning it all out. And the sisters actually relish being the center of attention, even if that attention is kind of negative. If I'm not talked about, I feel irrelevant. Yeah, we actually welcome it. I like drama on her page too.

And the sisters are becoming a fixture of the Nigerian gossip mill. But not everyone is able to take it in stride. The hunt for the anonymous owner of Nijajus Live is on. And those targeted by the site will show no mercy. the site will show no mercy. It's October 2016, and things are starting to change in Nigeria. Lately, the news has been dominated by stories about Nigeria's failing economy. Kieran's old billionaire Beau Femi saw his fortune plummet from more than a billion to a mere $550 million. I'd be like, 550 million,

maybe said you were a billionaire, sorry. But the sisters are still living well, Sarah, don't worry. They're still traveling back and forth between Canada and Nigeria. They squeeze in luxury trips to Dubai, London, Spain. Their lifestyle is still being funded by rich men. And those glamorous adventures keep the content machine churning on their blog and Instagram. But one day, Kiran comes across a shocking headline.

It says that police have identified the man behind notorious gossip site, Nija, just live. The guy is a web designer and aspiring rapper named Babatunde Oyabadi. He has a sweet face, round cheeks and deep eyes. He has a tattoo of the words hip hop on the backside of his lower arm. But now he's in prison. He was taken from his home by police, charged with allegedly using the site for extortion, demanding money from the rich and powerful to take down negative stories. And the report lists Femi as one of the site's victims. Kiran isn't surprised to see Femi's name.

He hates the Nigerian gossip world. She even suspects that he might be leading the charge against Babatunde. And the sisters figure, Babatunde's guilty. Mystery solved. But what they can't know yet is this is only the beginning of the Nijajas live takedown. And it's about to make them the stars of an explosive international scandal.

What's up guys, it's your girl Kiki and my podcast is back with a new season and let me tell you, it's so good.iki and my podcast is back with a new season and let me tell you it's too good and I'm diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest, okay? Every episode I bring on a friend and have a real conversation. And I don't mean just friends, I mean the likes of Amy Poehler, Kel Mitchell, Vivica Fox, the list goes on.

And now I have my own YouTube channel. So follow, watch, and listen to Baby, This is Kiki Palmer on the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch full episodes on YouTube and you can listen to Baby, This is Kiki Palmer early and ad free right now by joining Wondery. And uh, where are my headphones? Cause uh, it's time to get into it. Holla at your girl! Hey everyone, Sachi here and Sarah. You know those sketchy messages we all get, the job offers that seem too good to be true? Well, we thought we'd seen every type of scam out there, but this story completely blew our minds.

Those messages, they're actually coming from people trapped inside heavily guarded compounds, forced to scam others at gunpoint. Scam Factory, Wendry's riveting new series, exposes a multi-billion dollar criminal empire operating in plain sight. And this isn't your typical social media scam. Inside these compounds, armed guards ensure the only way out is to scam your way out.

And trust us, after covering countless scams, this story left even us shocked. Follow Scam Factory on the Wendery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Scam Factory early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. On December 14, 2016, two months after Babatunde's identity was revealed, the Mathur sisters are back in Lagos. Kiran's latest boyfriend invited them back for the holiday season, which has back-to-back parties night after night. Late in the afternoon, they're resting in their suite at the Echo Signature Hotel, a

disco nap before the evening activities. But then they're disturbed by a loud banging at the door. Through the peephole, Kieran sees a staff member from the hotel, so she opens the door. But behind the staffer are six guys in regular clothes. They burst in and say that they're the cops and that the sisters have to come to the police station. Here's Jothi. And they were kind of just like, you need to come now, get dressed. And we're like, we're not leaving

because the best thing you could do is not leave because you don't know who these people are. We don't even know if they're officers. One officer takes photos of the sisters in their bathrobes and it quickly ends up online. Jothi's on the phone with one of the men she knows in Lagos. He tells her, don't leave the hotel room. And Kieran's new boyfriend asks her,

what did you do to Femi? He must be the one behind this. But then the cops confiscate their phones. And they tell the sisters that if they don't get dressed, they'll just haul them to the police station in their robes. So they change fast. Police lead them through the lobby of their hotel and into a white van. An officer slams the door shut, and the van takes off, whisking Kieran and Jothi away on their most unexpected journey yet.

Officers drive the sisters to a police station and take them into a dimly lit interrogation room. They sit down on broken chairs, and one cop, Officer Philip Adebowale, hits them with questions. Do you have a blog? Are you good at making websites? And according to Toronto Life, Officer Philip finally reveals that they're being questioned about Nyjah just live. Jothi tells them, we've been talked about on that blog.

He looked confused, like, oh, you've been posted on it? Like, I thought you owned it. So he didn't even know what he came to investigate. They finish the interview and go back to the white van. Karen and Jothi are relieved. This rude interruption to their party prep time is finally over. But then the van approaches their hotel and it just keeps going.

The sisters are confused. Their car barrels towards the Lagos airport and then stops in the dirt driveway of another police station. The women are now in SARS custody. And Sarah, you already know this from a previous episode, so can you tell us what SARS is? Yeah, it stands for the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. So it's like this arm of the Nigerian police force, and they are a major human rights violator. Like, they target victims at random, and detainees are allegedly tortured, beaten, starved, shot, and threatened with execution. Yeah, exactly right.

So keep in mind, the Mathura sisters can't speak or write in Nigerian Pidgin. And Nyjagis live is written in part in Pidgin. So when the police ask them to write statements, they refuse to confess to running the blog. Yeah, I mean, why admit to something you didn't do in a language you cannot speak? Yeah, here's what Jothi says about it.

I was just like, okay, what do you want me to write? Tell me. So he said, write your name. I wrote it. He said, oh, what are you, how long have you been here? So I was writing generic information. According to the sisters, Officer Philip also asks them to write down the names of the people they know in Nigeria, including their phone numbers. Again, they refuse. also asks them to write down the names of the people they know in Nigeria, including their phone numbers. Again, they refuse. They know that a list like this could be used for

blackmail. By this time, it's getting late. The sisters say Officer Philip leads them through the prison and past a cell full of men who gawk at them to another cell. Jothi begs the officers to let them go. She's on her period, she says. She doesn't have any tampons. But Officer Philip doesn't care. They're led into a holding cell and the door is locked behind them. And they have no idea why they're being held or when they'll ever be let out. The sisters' jail cell looks like a pig pen. There are buckets of water for bathing.

Behind a curtain there's a hole in the floor. That's the bathroom. And about a dozen other women are crowded inside. Kieran is shaken when one woman beats another for stealing a cell phone. Oh my god. Like, so at this point they still have zero idea what's going on. They don't have a lawyer. Yeah, it's total chaos. But there are some small gestures of kindness. One of the girls was really nice,

and they had one mattress there that everyone was sharing. She made us a space on the mattress. She flipped a bucket so you can sit. Yeah, because I was like standing and crying. She's like, here, sit and cry. I mean, they're a couple of years removed from this experience, right? She's like, here, sit and cry. KERIN GILMORE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR-MORRAINE-TAYLOR Yeah. Well, Kieran tries to get some shut eye, but the sound of skittering rats keeps her up. And Jothi lies awake, wondering how the hell they got here. Before, she was certain it would only be a matter of time before they were back in their hotel suite. And now, it isn't so clear.

Coming from Canada, you're like, they can't hold me for not like that. You have to have proof. And we were stuck in that mentality that you have to have proof, you have to have something on us. And like, you can't just put us in a jail cell without a lawyer. And I think all that stuff went out the window the minute they put us in there. I'm like, oh my god, like that was when it became serious. Okay, Sachi, I mean, this is extremely sad. I couldn't imagine what they're going through, being ripped out of your hotel room, not knowing where you are, how long you're gonna be in jail.

Like, it's terrifying. I am wondering, though, what is the scam? I mean, I think there's, like, a version of the story where they would have been the scammers because they're, like, taking advantage of all these rich men. But I think the way that things are shaking out, it seems like the girls have actually been scammed, right? Like someone's trying to pin something on them.

Yeah, exactly. But the girls make it through the night. In the morning, the cops take them back to their hotel and search their things. They confiscate the sisters' passports and their shared laptop. And then the police shuttle the sisters to the to the RNA city hotel near the airport. And there, they're put under 24-7 surveillance. They aren't allowed to leave. They still haven't seen any paperwork.

They still haven't been able to speak with a lawyer. And if they ever want to get their freedom back, they might just have to confess to a crime they never even committed. have to confess to a crime they never even committed. Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondry.com slash survey. This is part one of our two part series, Gossip Girls. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were How to Date a Lot of Billionaires by Dan Levin in the New York Times and The Untold Story of the Canadian Kardashians and Toronto Life by Alexandra Kimball.

Jessica Ford wrote this episode. Additional writing by Saatchi Cole and Sarah Hagge. Additional reporting by Sarah Enni. Jen Swan is our senior producer. John Reed is our producer. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Tade Busby. Sarah Enni is our story editor. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle.

Fact-checking by Sonia Maynard. Our music supervisor is Scott Velazquez for Phrase on Sync. Adrian Tapia provided audio assistance. Our sound design is by Jay Rothman. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelow, Stephanie Jens, and Marshall Louie for Wondery.