Three Love Island stars denied using their status as Instagram influencers to promote a high-risk investment scheme as ‘Finfluencers’ on social media.
Rebecca Gormley, 26, Jamie Clayton, 32, and Biggs Chris, 32, were allegedly paid to promote the scheme to 4.5m Instagram followers.
Wearing black suits, the trio appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged with issuing unauthorised communications of financial promotions and indicated not guilty pleas.
In the first case of its kind, the Financial Conduct Authority claims Chris, Clayton and Gormley were recruited by Emmanuel Nwanze, 30, and 34-year-old Holly Thompson to act as ‘Finfluencers’ between April and May 2020.
The term refers to people who use their fame on the internet to give financial advice.
The watchdog said they were charged with six others, including original The Only Way is Essex cast member Lauren Goodger, 37, and 2016 Celebrity Big Brother winner Scott Timlin, 36, also known as Scotty T, Eva Zapico, 25 and TOWIE member Yazmin Oukhellou, 30.
Combined, the nine reality tv stars have more than 4.5 million followers on social media.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that Thompson and Nwanze are said to have run the Instagram account ‘holly_fxtrends’ to induce the public to invest in ‘contracts for difference’ schemes known as CDFs.
CDFs are potentially dangerous investments – in this instance based on foreign currency values – which often go wrong.
Nwanze paid Chris, Clayton, and Gormley to promote the account to their followers in 2020, prosecutors say.
He also paid Goodger, the ex-girlfriend of TV personality Mark Wright, Timlin, Zapico, Oukhellou and 33-year-old Holly Thompson – also known as Holly Zucchero, the FCA said.
Nwanze, Timlin and Thompson pleaded not guilty at a previous hearing.
Each of the defendants is charged with one count of issuing unauthorised communications of financial promotions.
They face up to two years in prison if convicted.
Kerry Spence, partner at Hodge Jones & Allen who represents Gormley and Chris, said: ‘My clients strongly protest their innocence and look forward to clearing their names in court of these spurious charges.’
Nwanze also faces one count of breaching a general prohibition under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which prohibits people from carrying out regulated activities in the UK unless they are authorised to do so.
A trial preparation hearing has been set for July 11 at Southwark Crown Court and the nine defendants have been granted unconditional bail until this date.
Anyone who believes they have suffered loss over the scheme should contact the FCA, the regulator said.
