He regularly boasts to his adoring followers that he made his first million by age 18 and had $30million (£22million) under his belt by age 23. Viewers who don’t know any better may assume he is an experienced investment banker or even a wealthy heir.
But no, Iman Gadzhi is a YouTuber with almost six million subscribers and sells courses on how to how to build an online business. He is one of a new brand of business gurus sweeping the internet that wax lyrical in sleek recording studios with promises of how you too can become rich, just like them.
The Russian-born entrepreneur has built his YouTube platform on luring in young, impressionable men with the promise of revealing the tips and tricks to make them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.
Gadzhi guarantees ways to transform you from broke student to millionaire in five years. He even says that by following his tips – with a little hard work – anyone in their 20s can be rich.
Tempting, right? His 4.1million followers on TikTok and two million followers on Instagram seem to think so.
But can his advice actually make you a millionaire? A Money Mail investigation has uncovered a series of failed companies left in 26-year-old Iman’s wake and a tenuous backstory.
Today we shine a light on the questionable financial advice he is sharing with millions of followers.
We put his money tips to the test and asked financial advisers for their opinion. Financial professionals have warned that the young influencer is offering flimsy advice and that his money tips could cost savers – instead of make them wealthy.
Who is Iman Gadzhi?
The entrepreneur moved to London as a young child and dropped out of school aged 17 to pursue social media marketing full-time. He claims he had a ‘difficult upbringing’ and was forced to be the male figure in the household.
His early videos on YouTube chronicle the young boy trying to become a fitness influencer before he started his marketing agency after signing his first client at 16. He dropped out of school a year later – and ran a marketing agency.
Iman Gadzhi has almost six million subscribers to his YouTube channel
He claims in his many online posts that he went from nothing to becoming a multi-millionaire in his early twenties
Gadzhi claims he went from nothing to becoming a multi-millionaire by his early twenties.
But digging into his past, it appears Gadzhi grew up in a home in the wealthy neighbourhood of Chelsea, west London, and attended the exclusive private Southbank International School, which charges around £15,000 per term.
Gadzhi has admitted this in old videos and says it was paid for by his wealthy stepfather. Money Mail approached Gadzhi for comment but he failed to respond.
He now lives in Dubai on Palm Jumeriah, the famous man-made palm-tree shaped island. Popular property YouTuber Enes Yilmazer just a few weeks ago posted a video touring Gadzhi’s house – optimistically and prematurely titled ‘Touring the home of a future billionaire’.
In the video, viewers can spot the four supercars parked outside Gadzhi’s sprawling villa, and inside they can spy glamorous furnishings and fittings.
As Gadzhi walks around the massive home he even says he’d like a little more space as he has a full-time chef, live-in maid and driver. However, he has bought another home to be ready for two years, which is even bigger. He does still spend time in London, however.
How does he make his money?
Gadzhi claims he made his first million by 18 and now says his net worth is ‘over 100[million]’.
It is unclear whether he primarily made his money from his marketing agency, selling courses or through a selection of his other brands and investments.
However, Money Mail’s investigations into public accounts of companies owned by Gadzhi in Britain suggest the influencer has made the majority of his money by selling online courses and various investments.
Iman stopped running his agency – which he claims was very lucrative – more than three years ago and it was dissolved at the beginning of last year.
Explaining the decision, he said: ‘Doing it remote with no office… I tried. It was very difficult. There’s opportunities where you can make eight figures and there’s opportunities where you can make nine figures. I got to a point where I was only looking at eight and nine figure opportunities.’
Money Mail put these claims to Gadzhi but he did not respond.
Gadzhi has now switched to running a software company and running courses for young men hoping to become rich through SMMA – social media marketing agencies – and also selling digital products.
One of his latest iterations is the Digital Launchpad course – under his Educate.io platform – for $37 a month, which gets you access to more than ten ‘proven’…
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