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Toronto’s Matharoo sisters have taken responsibility for the damaging website, Naijagistlive, and apologized in a video posted to YouTube.
The Toronto sisters accused of trying to extort and cyberbully a Nigerian billionaire through a sex-scandal website have apologized and taken responsibility for the site in a video posted on YouTube Thursday.
Sisters Jyoti and Kiran Matharoo, who have a substantial Instagram following, were accused, according to the news site Politics Nigeria, of trying to blackmail Femi Otedola, a Nigerian man named in Forbes magazine’s list of 2016 billionaires.
The sisters allegedly tried to blackmail Otedola by claiming they had evidence of him cheating on his wife that they would post to the sex-scandal website NaijaGistLive, according to Politics Nigeria.
In the video apology, posted to YouTube on Thursday by Linda Ikeji TV, Jyoti and Kiran Matharoo say that most of their site’s stories were sent to them by close friends or associates of the people they wrote about.
“We apologize to Femi Otedola and his family, especially his wife and children and all the other petitioners,” read one sister, who appears to be Jyoti, in the video.
Otedola made his money in the energy sector, according to Forbes, which at one point estimated his net worth at $1.8 billion.
“The intention was not to hurt anyone or to be malicious. The intention was not to extort anyone,” read Matharoo. “We haven’t received any money from the website.”
Her next words are barely intelligible, but she says that that “the money went to Babatunde Oyebode of Huzzle Inc.”
In Nigerian court documents, the Matharoos list their address as 1080 The Queensway in Toronto.
That address does not exist on the Toronto land registry.
A Star reporter searched the area for 1080 The Queensway and was unable to locate a building at that address.
There is a condominium complex at 1050 The Queensway. The Star found no Matharoos listed in its directory.
Beside 1050 The Queensway is a parking lot. The property next to that is an LCBO, with the address 1090 The Queensway.
Local business owners told the Star they did not know where 1080 The Queensway might be.
In a series of messages to the Star, someone posting from a Twitter account under the name Babatunde Oyebode, listed as CEO of Huzzle Inc., said that he had been arrested and charged by Nigerian police.
He still faces charges of blackmail and extortion, but was released from jail on Dec. 17, he said.
The Twitter user posting as Oyebode, whose company Huzzle Inc. provides online marketing and brand services, told the Star he was hired to design and host the Matharoos’ website, but never met the sisters.
He was hired and paid through a third party, he said.
In a post to Facebook, Oyebode proclaimed his innocence.
“I never ran the blog, I never publish(ed) for them or was I a party to any blackmail or extortion,” he wrote.
The website NaijaGistLive was down as of Thursday night.
The Matharoo sisters have a large following on social media and also run the lifestyle blog Matropolitan.com, where they post photos depicting a lavish lifestyle.
They’ve shared their exploits — from flying in private jets and cruising in luxury vehicles to ritzy locations — and designer apparel on their personal Instagram accounts.
The women, who some have compared to the Kardashians, are usually seen pouting, always immaculately groomed and wearing designer clothes.
The pair snap pictures of shopping sprees at stores like Harrods, Dior, Celine and Tom Ford for their followers to see, as well as selfies of their outfits and the food they eat.
But Bryan Brown, who knew the Matharoo sisters when they lived in Toronto, said they aren’t as “Kim Kardashian as everyone is making them out to be.”
Brown, 35, said he knew them socially through his entertainment and promotion company StarStruck Experiences and said the sisters attended parties he threw at Skybar in Toronto.
“They would come, they would buy their own bottles, they would buy their own drinks, they would pay for their own tickets, they never asked me for a dollar, for nothing for free,” recalled Brown.
Though Brown has fallen out of touch with the women and said he didn’t know they were in Nigeria, he remembered them fondly.
“I didn’t know them too personally, but I’ve interacted with them a few times and they’ve always been so sweet, they’ve always been so nice.”
With files from Peter Goffin
